Rescue Prime
by cefmlp
Summary: What if the Rescue Bots actually helped the Autobots fight the Decepticons? (RB X Prime) Credit to IceAgeDragon for being my newest writer.
1. INFORMATION

Okay before this story even begins, allow me to say some things.

1\. This is a crossover between Transformers Prime and Rescue Bots.

2\. This was originally on AO3, but I decided to put it here. (Reasons that will be explained)

3\. This story was my idea, but I am better at writing ideas than actually writing them in a manner that makes sense. In other words, I can't write fanfiction. I never had any classes that helped me or showed me how to do something like this.

4\. I originally had a writer that I collabed with who helped me on coming up with ideas and concepts for the AU. But over time I lost in contact with them. I eventually found another but it's clear they don't wish to continue the series.

5\. With no other option left, I decided to post the entire series on this site, hoping to get some recognition. (Since I'm lonely and I'll be this way for the rest of my life it seems.)

6\. If some of the writing seems off and out of place, as well as some being formatted differently, remember that this series was a group collab.

7\. However, if you like this series and would want to see it fully complete, then please please PLEASE let me know in the comments or even send me a private message. I can even tell you some things that were originally going to happen. And if anyone wants to help finish this series, well I am right here.

Anyway, here is what the characters in this story shall be.

Team members:

Optimus Prime

Ratchet

Bumblebee

Arcee

Bulkhead

Wheeljack

Smokescreen

Ultra Magnus

Heatwave

Chase

Blades

Boulder

Blurr

Salvage

Hightide

Jack Darby

Miko Nakadai  
Rafael Esquivel

June Darby

Agent William Fowler

Chief Charlie Burns  
Cody Burns  
Kade Burns  
Dani Burns  
Graham Burns  
Woodrow Burns  
Doc Greene  
Frankie Greene 

Decepticons:

Megatron  
Soundwave  
Starscream  
Shockwave  
Knockout  
Breakdown  
Dreadwing  
Airachnid

Predaking

Anyway, I hope you enjoy, please leave a fav, review, or show any form of appreciation.


	2. First Encounters

The war of Cybertron was brutal, to say the least. With both warring factions of Autobots and Decepticons, the entire planet was divided. There was no middle ground, no neutral side, and if any Cybertronian refused to fight for either side, the consequences were unforgivable. Prime should know, he experienced the extinction of the most popular neutral group being slaughtered by the Decepticons. To this day, he lives with the regret of what could have been, and the desire to not allow humanity go down the same path.

The day started out as normal as it needed to be. The kids were currently waiting to be picked by Arcee, Bumblebee, and Bulkhead. Much to the dismay of Ratchet's enjoyment of the peace. Speaking of which, the Prime's comrade was currently at the computer. Judging by the way the doctor was viewing the screen, Optimus could tell he was busy and wished to not be interrupted. The Prime was willing to grant that wish, but it still left the base with an unsettling silence.

It was quiet too quiet. The type of quiet that occurs right before an event is supposed to take place. It left the Prime guessing what that event would be.

The rest of the Autobots could come back to base, the Decepticons could launch an attack, or Ratchet might say something to catch the Prime's attention. Whatever it was, Optimus made sure he was always prepared to…

Suddenly, Ratchet's computer began beeping. The event finally came. Optimus decided to stand up and observe what was happening. Ratchet quickly located the cause of the beeping, preparing for the possible threat that was looming.

"Optimus" Ratchet shouted, grabbing the Prime's attention,"Something unknown has just entered the planet's atmosphere."

"Can you detect what it is?" The Prime asked with a hint of concern.

The Doctor pressed buttons on the computer, looking at what the scanners could detect. An image of Earth's view of space was presented on screen. In the middle of the image, was unexpected, to say the least. It was a ship, a Cybertronian ship.

Ratchet zoomed into the ship to get a better view of the vessel.

"It's a Cybertronian vessel! But I have no idea if it's Autobot or Decepticon" Ratchet replied. " I'm detecting four active Cybertronian spark signals from within and that this rate, they'll land on earth in a few Earth minutes.

"Can you estimate where the vessel will land?" The Prime asked.

"It looks to be heading towards upper Maine, not too far from the ocean."

Optimus bite his lower mouth plate. Unknown Cybertronians were arriving on earth. If they were Autobots, they needed to be found before the Decepticons found their location. But if they were Decepticons, it could endanger the humans in the area. With ⅗ of the team out of the base, that left only one bot to check out the vessel.

"Ratchet, enter the landing point's coordinates into the ground bridge. I will check to see if the vessel proves to be a threat" Optimus retorted.

"Are you sure Optimus, I could contact the rest of the team, they can be far from here" Ratchet replied.

"There is no time. The vessel could hold Cybertronians allies or threats. We must not let Megatron get his servos on it first."

With that argument, Ratchet followed the Prime's request and opened the ground bridge. Optimus transformed into his sly mode and drove into the spiral.  
_

When Optimus exited the ground bridge, he quickly transformed back to his normal mode with his servos turned into his blasters. He had his battle mask on, in case there was a need to fight. He turned to look at his surroundings.

The area was near the ocean, with no signs of human life. All that was there were a ton of abandoned warehouses as if they were used for containing sensitive materials.

The location was a strange place for an unknown vessel to land, but the Prime didn't have time to dwell on that fact. For from out of the sky, the vessel was arriving.

Optimus dashed into the nearest warehouse to him and quickly pull down the door to hide. He kept a small opening at the bottom so he could see what the Cybertronians were. His weapons were on standby, just in case.

At last the vessel reached the surface, luckily there was no hint of damage to it. Optimus had a better view of the ship and confirmed that it was Cybertronian. But there was no hint of what side of the war it was on.

From out of the ship stepped a figure that would change Optimus's experience of Earth forever.

It was blushed colored cybertronian whos optics were red-orange. He was about the size of Bumblebee, and almost looked to be around the same age.  
He stumbled out of the vessel as if trying to regain his strength to stand up straight.

"Be careful Heatwave." A voice called out that held a monotone vibe from it. "We have been in status for a while."

The owner of the voice followed by the red mech. A silver cybertronian who was slightly taller than his comrade and his optics were a bright tangerine.

He grasped the mechs shoulder and arm and supported him back to his feet.

What followed afterward was a rusty orange bot who had an upwards dome figure and horns that stuck out of his head. He too was around the other mech sizes with the same colored optics.

That was a close one," he said, stretching his arms to be rid of the cramps he had formed.

One final bot emerged from the ship, he was the shortest of the group with a pear color scheme and orange optics.

The red mech whined, clenching two fingers to the root of his…nose? Wait, all these mechs had noses.

Cybertronians didn't usually have noses, they were not of necessary use. Why would these possibly bots have them? The only cybertronians who had them were…

Optimus internally gasped when he looked at their chest plates. All fours bots held the Autobots signal but around it was a border. As if to symbolize the protection of the Autobots. The Rescue Bot insignia!

These four mechs were Rescue Bots!

But how? Rescue Bots were exterminated during the great war.  
He remembered seeing them being shot down by Decepticon forces and their own sparks being extinguished.  
An image that haunted him to this day.

His thoughts were interrupted by the rust-colored bot breaking the silence.  
"Uh, guys…?" He started with uncertainty. "Does Cybertron look different to you?"

The four bots than looked at where they were, and they looked puzzled beyond belief. Their optics were so large that if they were opened ever so slightly, they would likely fall out. They starred towards the sky, the ground, and even to the ocean that rested nearby. They didn't see the Prime in the warehouse before them, which he continued to stare at these mechs.

"This isn't Cybertron." The silver mech stated while staring at the ocean.

"This is an organic planet" the green mech almost squealed in delight.

"But that doesn't make any sense" The red mech pulled out what looked to be a datapad. He eyed it in confusion. "I specifically programmed the ship that when it'd receive a Priority Prime Message, that we would be sent back to Cybertron at once."

Optimus widened his optics. Priority Prime? He remembered. Back when he and his fellow Autobots arrived on earth, he felt that it would beneficial to send one out. It was an attempt to find more of his fellow Autobots and bring them to Earth.

Emphasis on an attempt. For years nothing responded, he assumed that either Soundwave deleted it or it was lost within the reaches of space. The message must have found the four mechs before him and brought them here, on Earth.

"Do you think the ship malfunctioned?" The green colored bot responded. "Do you think the Energon Eater might've damaged it."

"No," The red mech said, "The ship is functioning just fine, I checked."

"But if that's the case, why did it send us here?" The rusty bot responded.

"That's what I don't understand. Why. Why would this happen?."

"I think I have a better question. What is this place?" the green mech asked.

"Earth."

Optimus decided it was about time to make himself four bots shook up to the unsuspecting voice of the approaching Prime. He still wore his battle mask as a necessary precaution but transformed his blasters back into servos. He didn't wish to startle the young bots.

"And I am Optimus Prime."

As he halted in front of them, he was able to get a better view of them.

The red mech responded first, stepping forward and raising his servo to salute him. With the rest of his team following after.

"Rescue force sigma 17 reporting for duty."

So they were indeed Rescue Bots.

"I was unaware that…Rescue Bots were, still active."

"Wherever there is an emergency, there are rescue bots sir", the silver mech responded.

"Wait…why wouldn't we be active? How long were we is stasis?" The rusty bot peeped "We better check in with Cybertron HQ."

"That will not be necessary, or possible. Cybertron is no longer our home." "This planet is."

Before he could continue, his radar started to bing. five unfamiliar cybertronian life signals coming their way.

Decepticons.

The rescue bots ship must've been detected by the Decepticons as well. Any minute they would arrive and…

"We have to hide, now", The Prime demanded

"Wait, why?" the rusty bot squealed.

"Please assist me in hiding your ship, we don't have much time."

The four bots followed his instructions and followed him. Together they pushed against the ship to move it into the warehouse before them. The radar was dinging faster, they were almost here.

Finally, they managed to pull the vessel into the warehouse. Just before Optimus could hear the sounds of upcoming jets not too far away.

"Quick, behind you're vessel! Don't make a sound!"

The Rescue Bots ran behind the vessel while Optimus dawned on his battle mask with his servos turned into blasters.

A transforming sound came from behind the door. The sound of servos walking on the ground, and a lack a verbal communication. They were no doubt vehicons.

Not a single bot moved. If one sound was made, there was a huge probability of one of vehicons hearing. Optimus kept pointing his gun towards the door. If a vehicon was thinking of opening, the Prime was willing to fire at will.

He turned his helm towards the Rescue Bots and he could tell, they were scared. That is justified by the fact that their vessel looks to be lacking any means of self-defense. They held no weapons, at least none that were capable of causing damage. They were defenseless.

Fortunately, the sound of the Vehicons began to disappear. Finally, the sound of jets flying away filled the room. Optimus peaked through a tiny opening of the door to check the area. The vehicons were gone.

Optimus let out an open sign of relief, and then he turned towards the Rescue Bots.

"The threat is gone, you can come out of hiding."

All four Bots walked out of hiding and approached the Prime.

"Thank Primus," the red bot said with relief.

"I felt like my spark was going to burst!" The rust bot said.

Optimus felt reassurance with the four Bots safe. He could only imagine what would happen if they were discovered.

"I apologize for freighting all of you."

"It is alright," the silver bot responded, "You being here with us now is enough to ensure our safety."

The green bot was the next to speak.

"Um excuse me, Mr. Prime."

"Please, call me Optimus. What is it?"

The green bot swallowed first, and then with a voice of concern.

"You said before that 'Cybertron is no longer our home' what do you mean by that?"

Optimus spark dropped. Did these Bots know what happened to Cybertron before arriving? It is possible since their kind was wiped out before Cybertron's end. But he didn't have time answer when a familiar voice came out of his communicator.

"Optimus, Optimus can you read me?"

It was Ratchet.

Optimus completely forgot his old friend. So much has been on his mind, he never reassured him that he was safe.

"Yes, Ratchet. I hear you." The Prime responded.

"Thank Primus. I was getting worried."

"Fear not old friend, all is well."

"Did you find what the signal was?"

The Prime looked at the Rescue Bots. His glossa was dry, and his mouth plate was still. Should he tell Ratchet of the Rescue Bots? Should he not? He had to make a choice.

"Optimus, are you still there?"

"Ratchet, I will have to speak to you later."

"Wait for Optimus, what are you talking abo-"

Optimus cut communications.

He turned towards the Rescue Bots.

"I understand all of you have questions of Cybertron, so if it is not an inconvenience to you all, you may wish to sit down.

Throughout the night, Optimus told the four Bots of what happened to Cybertron. The extinction of the other Rescue Bots, Dark Energon, and the death of their planet. Usually, he was fine with speaking of this info, he told it to Jack and the others with no problem. The same cannot be said for the Rescue Bots. It broke his spark to see them hear such tragic news. They lost their entire home and they weren't there to do anything about it. He can only imagine what was going through their helms. He decided to stay with them for as long as they need, after hearing all that, he couldn't just leave them.

They gave Optimus their names as well. Heatwave the red bot, Chase was the silver bot, Blades was the rusty bot, and Boulder was the green bot. Despite their age, they looked and acted like professional Rescue Bots. At least, before the war consumed their sparks. These bots however never touched the war. In fact, the reason why they went into stasis was to escape an Energon Eater. Amazing that they were able to survive such a beast.

While they were checking their ship for any details as to what occurred while they were in stasis, Optimus sat on the sidelines so he could observe them.

Suddenly, a thought came to him that he hadn't thought of before.

What was he going to do with them?

His first idea was to call ratchet to send down the ground bridge and take them to base. Now that they are here, they are now under his protection. There was room for them at the base, and the kids would no doubt be delighted to see them.

But then another thought came to him.

These Rescue Bots had no battle experience. If they were to go with him back to base, it's only a matter of time till they would be discovered by the Decepticons. True the current team wasn't big, but every Autobot was a trained fighter, strong enough to match the strength of 10 Autobots. He was against the idea of forcing innocent lives to the battlefield.

Going to the base would be suicide for the Rescue Bots.

But if he couldn't take them to the base, where would they go. He couldn't just put them back into stasis, Primus knows how long they had been asleep. But he also couldn't just hold them hear, if a human were to discover them, I'd be madness.

Not to mention Ratchet would be calling again anytime soon. His team would be getting worried about him.

He had to make a decision, and fast.

Ever idea he came up with, only brought up more problems. There was no place for the Rescue Bots to go where they would be safe from the war. No place where they could be who they are in peace. No place.

Optimus sighed in frustration, he had no choice but to call agent Fowler.  
_

William Fowler had many questions flying through his head as he landed in the location Optimus Prime told him to meet at.

What was Optimus doing in a place like this? Why was he so far away from base? What signal did Optimus find? What it a danger to the world? Was it the Decepticons doing? The list went on.

Fowler approached the set of warehouses to find the one where Optimus was located. He didn't have to look far since not long after a few steps did he hear a familiar voice from behind one of the warehouses.

"Agent Fowler, are you there?"

That was Optimus no doubt.

"Yes Prime, I'm here now," Fowler replied, stepping closer to the voice.

"Has anyone one followed you?"

"I triple checked on my way here, and I made no communications that the Decepticons should pick up."

"That is reassuring."

"Enough with that hiding Prime!" Fowler retorted impatiently " What's your reason for bringing me out here?"

The door to the warehouse opened large enough to let the American agent walk through. Standing in front of Fowler was Optimus Prime himself.

"So what's your secret Prime?" Fowler demanded.

"OH, MY PRIMUS, WHAT IS THAT!?" An unknown gruff voice called out.

Fowler turned to see that standing behind the Prime were a group of new Cybertronians that wore insignias that sort of resembled the Autobot symbol. They began to approach Fowler to get a better look at him.

"It's an organic life form!" The green bot said, looking at Fowler in the face.

"Does it bite? The rust bot said, observing his jacket.

"Be careful, it might bite." The Silver Bot retorted, choosing to stand near a red colored bot that Fowler assumed screamed at him a few moments ago.

"Rescue Bots, please settle down," Optimus said, calmly them down.

The four boats stepped aside as the Prime walked next to Fowler to speak.

"This is Special Agent William Fowler. He is a human, the species that largely populate this planet."

"Um, Hello?" Fowler attempted to introduce himself.

"Woah, so these are humans?" The green bot said with great awe in his voice.  
"I've heard so much about humans, they are just as small they say in those data pads in my bunker."

Fowler could tell this young bot was fascinated by new things. He kinda reminded him of Raf.

"Are you sure this is a human?" The red bot said with a hint of annoyance  
"I don't recall data pads saying humans were this...round"

Did this bot just call him fat!? If Fowler wasn't in a state of shock in the current situation, he would've given that mech a piece of his mind.

Luckily he didn't need to, for the Rust Colored bot gave the red one a harsh look. The red Bot rolls his optics in response.

Optimus spoke again.  
"Agent Fowler, these are Rescue Bot Sigma 17. Heatwave, Chase, Blades, and Boulder. Their ship fell to Earth yesterday."

Fowler now had even more questions.

Optimus asked to have a private discussion with the agent outside the warehouse.

"What do you think of the Rescue Bots?" The Prime asked.

Fowler rubbed his temple for a second and then looked at Optimus.

"They are interesting, to say the least. But I don't understand why you brought me out here. Looks like the Decepticons are going to have a surprise when they see them on the field. Be proud Prime."

Fowler noticed the Prime biting his lower lip in response. Optimus looked unsure of himself, but before Fowler could ask, the Prime spoke.

"That is the problem. I don't want them to on the field."

Did the Prime break a circuit!? Why wouldn't he take these possible soldiers to war?

"Rescue Bots are pure neutral. They are not built to fight. If Megatron knows of their whereabouts, he will no doubt kill them. "

"Prime, you're being foolish, this isn't just simple feud we're talking about here. You have the chance to change this war and you don't want to take it?!"

Prime gave a look of sorrow as he stared at the Agent.  
"Because they are too young, too innocent, and too unprepared to face the horrors of the war. I won't risk their lives for a battle that isn't their own."

The Prime sat on his (knees)  
"Please, I am in desperate need of you assistance William Fowler."

Fowler knew that Optimus was never the one to beg, so seeing him do it, giving gravity to the situation. He looked back at the Bots and found them to not hold weapons or any means of defense. Fowler signed.

"What do you want me to do?"

The Prime smiled softly after hearing that.

"A place in the country where the Decepticons cannot find them. Where they can be Rescue Bots. A place where they'll learn to care for this planet."

Fowler and Optimus just stared at each other for a moment. No words said, no sounds made. Fowler sighed again, looking towards the helicopter he arrived in.

"I'll see what I can do," Fowler said walking towards the copter.

As he was about to take off, Fowler said one last sentence to Prime.

"I hope you know what you're doing Prime."

Fowler flew off into the sky.

"I hope so too."  
_

Fowler was frustrated at his desk. Looking for the place where those Bots would be safe and able to protect others was harder than he thought. Every place he checked wasn't the right location Prime was looking for.

There is this university in Chicago, but it doesn't have room for Bots like them.

There is a Rescue Center in Los Angeles, but it hasn't been active in years.

And New York was way too populated.

Fowler was getting tired, he couldn't find a single place where the Rescue Bots could stay. He was getting close to calling Prime and bringing the bad news. When suddenly something caught his eye. Not too far from the Rescue Bots location was a tiny island.

"Griffin Rock."

A smile formed on his face.

He knew the right location.


	3. Cody's Prologue

Hi,

My Name is Cody Burns.

I'm a 8-year-old boy that lives on Griffin Rock.

If you are unaware of that place, that's fine. Not a lot of people know of such a place. Griffin Rock is an isolated island near the state of Maine that serves as a government technology testing ground. The island has many brilliant (or rather creative) minds that are able to create technology that the rest of the world has never seen.

But I'm getting off topic.

I live with my family of four (well five if you count me). We are in charge of the rescue force that has made it our goal to protect the citizens of Griffin Rock from danger, whether it be from natural forces or the people themselves. My dad (Charlie Burns) is the police chief, my oldest brother (Kade burns) is a firefighter, my older sister (Dani Burns) is air support, and my brother Graham Burns is the engineer. I'm the youngest of the team, so I can't drive any vehicle.

Life on griffin rock was fine, until one day my dad was called by a government official to go to the mainland. He said he was to be given a new vehicle to drive in. I wasn't sure why, neither was he, but he agreed to come.  
When dad returned, he brought something that changed life on Griffin Rock forever.

4 state of the art transformable robots that were to be given to my family. A firetruck, and police car, and helicopter, and a bulldozer. There was something suspicious about them, they were moving on their own. Only I was noticed.

It turns out that they were a group of transforming alien robots called Cybertronians. They were called the Rescue Bots. Their names were Heatwave, Chase, Blades, and Boulder. Their planet Cybertron was no longer inhabitable, so they were assigned to Griffin rock by the leader of the Autobots; Optimus Prime.

Griffin Rock with the Rescue Bots was more interesting, to say the least. the bots had to keep their identities secret or else the people of this world would be terrified.

Little did I know it was actually for a completely different reason.


	4. Breaking Down Beginnings

In a Rescue Prime AU, Boulder, Breakdown, and Bulkhead are brothers. But as we know all too well from TFP, brothers just can't be happy together. This is exactly what went wrong.

Notes:

So a couple notes: I fudged on a LOT of canon. Like a lot. I didn't know something, I made it all up. I also referred to Alex Irvine's book, "Transformers: Exodus" a lot, but I probably STILL got something wrong. For example, I have no idea what an HUD is, but I used the term probably twice here in ways I've seen it used in other fanfics. Hope it's not too jarring for you. Anyway. . . enjoy the story!

Also: I'm using the way of marking Cybertonian time that Kemmasandi does in Rise (a really great fanfic, btw). So:  
Nanoklik= Instant  
Klik= Minute  
Joor= Hour  
Orn= Day  
Chord= Week  
Lune= Month  
Vorn= Year

Work Text:

Target all evacuating Rescue Teams.

The memory of the intercepted message was burned into Bulkhead's memory files, and every time he revisited it, he panicked all over again. He was headed toward Nova Cronum with as much speed as he could muster, and yet it seemed like he was never going fast enough. With every landmark he passed, every war-ravaged building, one word exploded frantically in his mind.

Boulder. Boulder. Boulder. And of course, the requisite oh Primus don't let him be dead don't let him don't don't please no please no no no. . .

Primus, if his little brother had just decided to join him on the Wreckers instead of being on a fragging Rescue Team . . . but Bulkhead knew that was ridiculous, and it was a complete reverse from what usually crossed his mind when he thought of Boulder- which was a thankful prayer that the soft-spoken, artistic young mech had chosen one of the safer posts in the war. And his brother could never have been a Wrecker.

Well . . . Boulder couldn't, anyway.

Bulkhead, once again, felt familiar confused sadness envelope him as Breakdown flashed instantaneously in his memory. It only lasted a nanoklik before he shoved it away and replaced it with the proper anger.

He pushed on, not wanting to relive old memories but finding that he couldn't outrun them. One found him just as he passed a pit in the ground big enough to swallow a Prime in.

Three mecha, their frames large and bulky, sitting in the shadow of a half-built tower as the light fades from the planet and sipping cubes of low-grade. The smallest of them is talking excitedly about something Bulkhead doesn't exactly understand, but he and Breakdown ask Boulder questions about it anyway.

Three brothers standing in a crowd, listening to the daring ideals of a revolutionary. Bulkhead listens, and wonders; is what this Megatronus says true? Could he be more than a construction laborer? More than what his caste defines him as? He wonders, and next to him, his brothers wonder too.

Bulkhead could see Nova Cronum far ahead, and his spark sank within him. The city was a firepit, and smoke rose from it like a living thing. All around the outside walls were the mangled, flaming forms of escape ships that had been shot down.

Boulder's not in one of those. He's not. He's not. He's not. . .

He pulled up the file again, read the short line of text for the hundredth time, and went faster. Target all evacuating Rescue Teams. He should have been able to do something, warn Boulder, warn all of the Rescue Teams, but he hadn't had a comm line with his little brother since he joined the Wreckers. And Ultra Magnus had decided, after Bulkhead had shown him the message, that Nova Cronum was a lost cause and that it would be less than pointless for the Wreckers to throw their lives away trying to defend it.

There had been pain and regret, deep regret, in the commander's optics as he said this, but that hadn't stopped Bulkhead from leaving the Wreckers the very next orn to go find Boulder on his own.

More memories flashed at him, and this time, they were not so pleasant.

"Why are you so interested in those Decepticons?" Bulkhead asks, trying to exude the proper amount of disapproval. Breakdown scoffs.

"They're not that bad, Bulk!"

"Breaky, come on! I'm getting some real bad mojo about these guys. . ."

"They were the first people to tell me that I didn't have to be a laborer my whole life!" Breakdown snaps.

"Guys!" This was Boulder, and his eager face quickly makes the other two step away from each other- Bulkhead didn't even remember stepping closer to Breakdown, but it had happened. "What do you think about Rescue work? I've always wanted to be on a Rescue Team!"

"You have?" Breakdown asks.

"Well- sort of. I just didn't think it was possible if I was just a laborer. But if I don't have to stay a laborer-"

"See, Bulk?" Breakdown interrupts. "Boulder agrees with the Decepticons, too."

"Well- no," Boulder says. "They're a little- a little scary." He flinches, only slightly, at Breakdown's scoff. "I'd rather follow the other faction. . ."

"Other faction?" Bulkhead says.

"Autobots." Boulder's optics light up again. "You know, the part of the Decepticons led by Orion Pax?"

"Megatron's much better," Breakdown says disdainfully. "He's a former gladiator! Orion Pax is just a. . ." He seems to cast about for an appropriate insult. "A clerk!"

"A clerk with a purpose." Boulder's face is unusually determined. Normally, he hates arguing with Breakdown. "And he doesn't approve of his followers destroying things to prove a point."

"Aw, come on, Boulder!" Breakdown initiates the transform sequence in his arm and holds up the hammer. "Are you telling me I shouldn't want to destroy things?"

"Okay, guys," Bulkhead interrupts. "Maybe we should just. . . cool it down?"

"Yeah," Boulder says immediately, relief flooding his optics.

But Breakdown sighs, and Bulkhead catches a glimpse of frustration and discontent on his face before he turns away.

Bulkhead reached the city gates. Or. . . what used to be gates. Primus, there wasn't even anything that vaguely resembled a wall anymore.

Air fire, the Wrecker part of his mind thought. Seekers. Starscream!

He wheeled away from the inferno that was the city- he was sure his gears would melt

within him if he stepped foot inside- and went to search the burning fields outside. The fields which certainly did not hold an escape ship with Boulder inside.

The ships were almost too many to number, and Bulkhead knew it would take orns, maybe chords, to search through them all. Adding to that was the fact that if there was anyone who survived- Boulder, Boulder survived- Bulkhead would have no way to help them if they were damaged. He was hardly a medic.

He began to search.

"See?" Bulkhead points at the news reading. "Now the Decepticons have started an all-out war!"

"A war for change," Breakdown argues.

"It's still a war, Breaky!" Bulkhead sighs, noticing how Boulder is pointedly turned away from both of them, doodling something in charcoal on the wall. "Look, it just. . . doesn't sit right with me, all this destroying stuff."

"Blah, blah, blah. Aren't you the one that talked about joining the Wreckers?"

"That's different!"

"Why?!" Breakdown shouts. "They still break stuff! It's just that they're under the command of a data clerk instead of a gladiator!"

"They say Orion Pax is a Prime now," Boulder says suddenly, turning to face them. "Which is better, a Prime or a gladiator?"

"I don't buy into all this 'Prime' stuff," Breakdown says dismissively. "'Sides, aren't the two factions fighting now, or something?"

"The Prime still wants change," Boulder says. "He just doesn't agree with Megatron's methods of getting it."

"So. . . they're fighting."

"Yeah," Boulder says quietly. "Yeah, they're fighting."

"Hey, leave him alone, alright, Breaky?" Bulkhead interrupts.

"Whatever," Breakdown grinds out. "Weren't we heading to Praxus? I think we've rested enough. Let's get back on the road."

It took two orns before Bulkhead found a body. It wasn't Boulder's, but the frametype was so similar that Bulkhead knew that the mech must have occupied the same role in his team that Boulder did his.

Bulkhead had been saved by a Rescue Team before. He and Wheeljack had jumped over a cliff to make the 'Cons chasing them assume that they had died. It had worked, but they had been stuck on the cliff face, unable to move for fear of falling, for at least four orns. A Rescue Team- Tau Beta 4, if he remembered right- had lived up to the name of their job and saved the two Wreckers.

Bulkhead hadn't stopped bragging to Wheeljack that his little brother was on one of those teams for a lune.

But now-

He turned over a hunk of viscous, half-melted metal that used to be the port side of an escape pod, barely giving the angry explosion of pain receptors in his hands a second thought. Boulder hadn't gone to Praxus with them. During their journey to the city, they had happened to pass a road that went to Iacon. After much talking with his two brothers, Boulder had decided to follow that road and try and join a Rescue Team there. Breakdown, however supportive he was of his little brother's decision, had flat-out refused to go with him, claiming Praxus was where he wanted to go, not Iacon.

At the time, Bulkhead had wondered if it had more to do with the fact that Iacon was now the main support base of the Autobots, and that Breakdown had never really agreed with Boulder on the question of whether the Decepticons or the Autobots were right. Now he wondered about things less tangible- what would have happened if he had gone with Boulder to Iacon, rather than with Breakdown to Praxus. For some reason, he had decided to go with his older brother rather than his younger one.

Maybe, he whispered to himself in the privacy of "what if", maybe if he had gone with Boulder, Breakdown would have come with them. And then what happened in Praxus wouldn't have happened at all.

But he hadn't.

And the memory of Praxus told him that again and again.

The two of them come to Praxus as a battle begins, and find themselves unable to leave once it has started in earnest. The Decepticons and the Autobots are fighting for control of the city, Bulkhead soon learns. He and Breakdown stay in the far outreaches of the state, believing it will protect them from the worst of the fighting.

They have several conversations about whose side they will choose if the time comes when it is impossible not to fight. As ever, Breakdown leans more toward the Decepticons, giving reasons that sound both convincing and earnest, but Bulkhead can't decide. Without Boulder to make a case for the Autobots, he doesn't know which side would be better. He nearly always ends the almost-arguments in a draw, saying that he hopes it will never come to that, that the battle will soon draw to a close and they can live in peace.

But as the lunes pass, he begins to realize that will not happen. Energon is in low supply, lower than Bulkhead has ever experienced. The fighting grows more vicious, and more and more of the city is destroyed each orn. Bulkhead finds himself journeying farther and farther into parts of the city-state he never had before, as his Energon levels grow increasingly more depleted, to find fuel, and Breakdown does the same.

It is on one of these runs that he comes across his first real reason not to join the Decepticon side.

His sensors are alerting him to nearby Energon, but his audio receptors are warning of something else. Someone is crying, pleading, vocalizer cracking and glitching, and over it all, another voice barks harsh and cruel laughter. Bulkhead hangs back, not wanting to see what it is that's going on, but his warnings of dangerously low levels of Energon in his HUD spur him inexorably forward.

And then he sees where the noises are coming from, and he stops being a starving mech and becomes Bulkhead again. Bulkhead, who is unable to ignore the horrific thing the mech with Decepticon brands is inflicting on the other.

The wrecking ball function in his arms, so long ignored since he and his brothers had left construction work, springs online. He's leaping forward before he can think, attacking the bot- the Decepticon- who had been hurting the other. The mech snarls and initiates a transform sequence that has him brandishing two wicked-looking vibroblades in Bulkhead's face.

Bulkhead doesn't think. He acts. He breaks. He brings the wrecking ball down on the 'Con's helm, over and over, until there isn't anything left but a mess of smashed plating and a leaking, spreading pool of Energon.

He faintly remembers the other mech thanking him, after. But his levels are so low, and the warnings before his eyes so frantic, that he stumbles off without another word.

Later, after he has found some scrap of Energon- enough to keep him from falling into forced recharge- he allows himself to think back on what had happened. And he knows, with a certainty he rarely feels these days, that he could never choose the Decepticons if the option came.

And it is only a chord or so after this incident that the option does come.

There were so many bodies. In the ships. Out of the ships. Some barely recognizable, others all too familiar.

He had found the remains of Rescue Team Tau Beta 4 about three orns ago. He had murmured a somber "till all are one" over the burning ship.

Now he wasn't sure he could have found the strength to speak even if he had found Boulder.

The bot is tall and sleek, wings flaring high over his helm, and on his chest a Decepticon symbol flashes. It is this Bulkhead focuses on, and next to him, he can see Breakdown staring at it as well.

But Breakdown's optics are lit with cautious excitement and curiosity. Bulkhead shivers.

The Decepticon had landed in the part of the city where they stayed most of their time now, spending the orns in recharge rather than waste Energon they didn't have. His weapons had been out, and his faceplates were twisted in a snarl of readiness- obviously he had been expecting to come across Autobot resistance, but there had been no one there, save for a few minicons who still scavenged the sector for Energon. . . and the two brothers.

The Seeker's optics had landed on Bulkead and Breakdown, who were resting, their fuel nearly depleted, near a wall. As ever, they sat a few paces away from each other- slow starvation had changed them both, and they regarded each other with open resentment and hostility more often than not.

Bulkhead had seen the Decepticon's gaze then travel to his chest, his shoulders, and his helm- no doubt searching for an Autobot insignia. Breakdown, who had begun to sit up in interest, received the same calculating stare. Then the Seeker's faceplates had creased in pleasure.

"Brothers," he is saying now, "I come to you with a generous offer- to join the Decepticon ranks and fight for change under our leader, Lord Megatron!"

Breakdown nearly bolts to his feet. The Seeker's optics flicker over him in pleased surprise.

"You. . . accept?" he says, and Bulkhead doesn't miss the slight hesitation, as if he were used to mecha not accepting.

"Can you fuel me?" Breakdown asks bluntly.

"Of course," the Decepticon purrs. "You will never go depleted in the Decepticon ranks."

"Then yes," Breakdown says. He smiles.

Bulkhead remembers that moment all too often- when he is trying to convince himself that Breakdown had only agreed to join in order to get Energon. He remembers the smile that had landed on his brother's faceplates. He remembers it, and he shudders.

After Breakdown's declaration, he and the Seeker both turn to Bulkhead.

"And you?" the Decepticon asks, seemingly emboldened by Breakdown's acceptance. "Will you join our mighty cause and abandon starvation?" He extends a hand as if to help Bulkhead up.

Bulkhead, leaning against the wall, shutters his optics. He looks at the Seeker and sees the Decepticon he had killed, and the horrible thing he had stopped the bot from doing. His decision-making process is not long.

"No," he says, and manages not to slump back against the wall. "No." And then, with an effort, "Boulder stands with the Autobots, and so do I!"

Breakdown's optics narrow.

The Seeker scoffs, and onlines a wicked-looking gun system in his arm. "I have no use for more Autobot-aligned Praxians," he says. "You won't be doing any standing, I think. . ."

Bulkhead has a nanoklik to react before the Decepticon releases the missile.

He offlines his optics and falls to the side. To the Seeker, whose missile hits the wall above him in a fiery explosion an instant after he does so, it appears that Bulkhead is dead.

His optics are still offline, but he keeps his audio receptors on. He hears Breakdown's voice. His brother sounds shocked as he asks, "You. . . killed him?"

"Yes." The Seeker's voice is clipped and uncaring. "And you must learn that when it comes to war, we cannot allow even one mech to join our enemies. Decepticons are ruthless, strong, and we will be victorious- if we fight together!" Now there is a hesitation in the Decepticon's voice. "Was he a. . . compatriot of yours? Your. . . your conjux?"

"No!" Breakdown says. "He's my. . . he was my. . ."

Brother, Bulkhead thinks.

". . . He's no one. I just. . . knew him for a while," Breakdown finishes.

And somehow, Bulkhead is not hurt.

Not too much.

He hears the two mecha begin to shift. "What is your designation?" the Seeker asks.

"Breakdown."

"Hmm, fitting. Do you have any weapon systems?"

There is the sound of transformation, and a grunt from Breakdown. "Hammer?"

"Mmm, acceptable. We will have to equip you with a blaster, however, before the next battle."

"What battle?"

The voices begin to move farther away. But Bulkhead distinctly hears the Seeker reply, "After we take Praxus, Nova Cronum is next. The Autobots will never stand a chance with so many mighty warriors in our ranks . . ."

It occurred to Bulkhead, faintly and as if from far away, that Breakdown had most likely been in the battle that destroyed Nova Cronum. That had. . . killed Boulder.

Primus, please, don't let him be dead.

He could see other bots beginning to comb the burning field. With warnings beginning to blink in front of his vision- Energon levels 23%, critical, refuel immediately- he turned over another ship, scanned another body, felt his hope sink lower into him than it had ever before.

He remembered the last time he had seen his little brother. It had been a vorn or so after Breakdown had become a Decepticon, and Bulkhead had declared himself an ally of the Autobots. After that day, Bulkhead had dragged himself to the center of the city- shattered confidence, depleted Energon levels, and all- and requested of the first bot with an insignia he came across to become an Autobot. They had fueled him, equipped him with two electro-blasters, and put him in the Wreckers.

And finally, Bulkhead had found a place where he felt he belonged. He made friends quickly, especially with the irrepressible Wheeljack. They fought battles, set traps, exploded grenades- it was like nothing he had ever experienced before, and he found that he enjoyed it immensely.

And then. . . he found Boulder again.

The young mech had been overjoyed that his brother had also joined the Autobots, and had asked dozens of excited questions. There had been plenty involving Breakdown, but Bulkhead managed to deflect them all. He didn't know why, but he couldn't bring himself to tell Boulder that his brother had joined the 'Cons.

Bulkhead had then been introduced to the members of Boulder's Rescue Team, and although he couldn't remember their names now, the memory of their young, happy faces was burned into his files all too well. He would mourn their deaths, but with a pang of selfishness he realized that most of the grief would come from knowing Boulder had died along with them.

It had been vorns since he had talked to his brother. Wreckers and Rescue Bots just didn't have the same missions, and during war, it was just too dangerous to keep a comm line. Bulkhead hated the long absences, but he knew they were necessary. . . necessary. . .

He stumbled. His HUD was nearly screaming at him- Levels 12%, danger of shutdown, refuel immediately- and he knew, with a sinking, familiar feeling, that he wasn't going to find Boulder. . .

He forced himself to shut down all not-essential functions, re-route his subsystems, and find a safe place to recharge. War had drilled this, at least, into him. He fell, with a crash that nearly cracked his plating, next to an extinguished ship. The last thing he heard was the whine of his systems shutting down.

The counter in his HUD informed him that a chord had passed while he was in recharge. His repair nanites had reformatted the drainage of Energon so that his levels were decreasing at a slower rate. He still functioned, but barely.

He sat up. The field of burning ships burned no longer. Mecha milled about, scarred and muttering- not survivors, but veterans. Mecha like Bulkhead, coming to look for the dead.

Shuttering his optics- and instinctively thanking Primus he hadn't offlined- Bulkhead stood. In the distance, he could see a. . . a massive pile of. . . of something he couldn't quite-

Then he knew.

They were bodies.

"No," he whispered, and began running forward. Boulder, no! Don't be there, please!

The mecha who stood at the pile turned to watch him arrive, and there was no surprise in their faces, only sad resignation. One of them, a smaller bot, held a datapad, and Bulkhead could see names on it- names that he was slowly crossing out, one after the next.

"No," Bulkhead said again, and suddenly he found himself beginning to babble meaninglessly, words pouring out of his vocalizer with no thought behind them. "Please, Boulder, where is he, Primus, no. . . no, no, no, did he die, please, tell me, do you know? Please, please, I can't, I'm sorry, Boulder. . ."

"He has a list," one of the mecha said dully, gesturing at the small bot. "Of all the mecha who. . . who were. . ." He broke off, vocalizer spitting angry static.

"Primus," another bot muttered. "Rescue Bots. They went after the Rescue Bots."

"All. . . all of the teams," the small mech whispered. "There are no more. There. . . are no more."  
"Let me see," Bulkhead said abruptly. "The list. Please."

The small bot handed it over wordlessly.

It took less than a kilk for Bulkhead to find the names. Sigma 17, their team's title, and listed underneath: Heatwave, Chase, Boulder, Blades.

The names of the other three resonated in his mind, and suddenly he could hear Boulder's voice again.

"And this is Chase- Blades- Heatwave, the team leader-"

Now he remembered, he thought dully. Now that they were all. . . all dead. . .

Now that Boulder was dead. . .

He dropped the datatpad and turned to stumble away, walking blindly, one pede dragging after the next. His systems recognized the overwhelming grief spreading in him and triggered the cleansing fluid protocols in his optics so they didn't burn out. He was too late to abort the program, and the half-ache of fluid dripping from his optics did little to distract him from the pain inside his spark.

Surprisingly, he didn't think Boulder anymore. He didn't deny that he was gone. All that was left was the hurt, and oh, it did hurt. He found himself releasing sounds he didn't even know his vocalizer could make, keening and broken bits of words and glitching sobs.

Behind him, Nova Cronum smoldered on.

Bulkhead knew, when the grief passed, that Breakdown had killed Boulder. Maybe not intentionally, or even directly, but he had. If he had not been the one to shoot Sigma 17's ship down, one of the Decepticons he aligned himself with had, and he had undoubtedly shot down another.

His brother had killed his brother.

Both of them were dead now.

Breakdown will pay, Bulkhead vowed. I will make sure of that, if I have to chase him across the stars!

And with his spark so burdened, he turned and began the long journey back to Iacon.

Far away, in a distant sector of a distant galaxy, a pod floated. The inhabitants slept.

Stars watched.

Inside, the systems of the ship whirred and hummed gently, keeping an eye over the four bots who rested in stasis. The mainframe went through the power-down sequence, preparing the pod for an eternity of traveling. It sent files through the systems to the data banks, transferring the last images the cameras and microphones had recorded. One such file sat at the center, playing over again for the record. Scraps of audio scratched out, cutting off erratically as the pod continued its shutdown.

"We have to go back and hel-"

"-ordered to evacuate, Heatwa-"

"-going to die, all of them, they're-"

"-sensors indicate another presence outside the shi-"

"-ergon eater, Energon eater, Energon eater-"

"Blades, stop, calm dow-"

"Ship, deep space protocol, now!"

"-go into stasis, Heatwave!"

"Now!"

A silence.

A robotic voice, declaring: All is well. Stasis deployed. Creature disposed of.

The file played itself out.

The ship floated through space.

And all was well.


	5. Behind the Rescue Part 1

Summary:

Bumblebee really liked recharge. But, he had to admit, he didn't like it enough to go out and yell at the last mech he could have expected to wake him from it- Optimus himself.

Notes:

This is basically a prequel to the "Bumblebee to the Rescue" episode of Rescue Bots, and the second part of kicking off the Rescue Prime crossover. There will be more coming in this AU!

Here's the thing: Bumblebee really liked recharge. It was, he told himself, one weakness he could allow himself to have, and he guarded it zealously. If a member of his team decided to disturb him for some non-battle related reason (Bulkhead throwing a lobbing ball at the wall opposite his berth; Smokescreen, most recently, literally barging into his berthroom to show him some Earth-rodent that had nibbled on the sports car's tires) they were treated to his speciality: a half-blurred, staticky, barely comprehensible rant in angry binary, starting with the wish that they would leave him alone but inevitably wandering off to other, less understandable topics- like the deep injustice that out of all the berths they had, not one of them had spaces for his doorwings, forcing to lie on his abdominal plating, and he hated lying on his abdominal-

The bot usually made the wise choice, muttering an apology (Bulkhead) or simply backing away (Smokescreen). Bumblebee always felt vaguely guilty later, but when compared to the sensation of being jerked from a pleasant recharge, he felt the guilt was preferable.

Bumblebee really liked recharge. But, he had to admit, he didn't like it enough to go out and yell at the last mech he could have expected to wake him from it- Optimus himself.

His Prime was standing at the control center, speaking to someone through the screen. As Bee poked his head around the corner, Optimus repeated the thing which had jolted Bumblebee awake.

He laughed.

Admittedly, it was a short laugh, and Optimus quickly schooled his faceplates back into neutrality after, but it still came out so alien- sounding on his leader's vocalizer that Bumblebee let out a low whirr of shock.

Luckily, whoever it was Optimus was talking to- Optimus was talking to someone, secretly, what was going on- spoke at the same time Bumblebee did, and the Prime didn't notice him.

"Yes, sir," the bot was saying, "he really did. The mech's got a cracked processor-"

"Hey!" a second voice protested. "It wasn't my fault-"

"Despite that little oversight," a third voice interjected, "we were able to quickly correct-"

" Quickly correct," the first bot grumbled.

"Moderately quickly correct," the third bot amended, "and stay on top of the situation."

A fourth voice jumped in, and Bumblebee shuttered his optics- how many bots was Optimus talking to? But if he asked himself that question, it would lead to others- like who was his Prime was speaking to, and why was he doing it now, secretively, when everyone else was recharging?

"Thank you for checking in on us, Optimus Prime," the fourth bot was saying. "I know you're busy."

Optimus smiled slightly, and Bumblebee saw the same surprisingly tender expression that his leader sometimes wore while looking at Bee himself. "You are welcome, Rescue Bots," he said, inclining his helm slightly at the screen. "I am glad to hear that you are functioning well on Griffin Rock."

The two unexpected pieces of information burst into Bumblebee's audio receptors, and his scouting protocols automatically sequestered them away in separate files for later perusal. While this happened, Optimus exchanged more words with the mysterious mecha- Rescue Bots- and closed the connection.

He stood in front of the screen for a few kliks after, venting evenly, and from the look on his faceplating, thinking. Before Bumblebee's optics, he seemed to relax himself into an attitude he never allowed his team to see. It was vulnerable, and achingly tired.

Bee felt suddenly disgusted with himself, standing behind a wall and watching his leader while the Prime thought himself alone. He stepped out into view.

::Optimus,: : he said.

His Prime's helm jerked into awareness, and he turned toward Bumblebee. His optics widened as he took in the sight of the scout standing there. Before he could speak, Bumblebee did.

::I. . . woke from recharge,:: he said, stepping closer to Optimus. He hesitated, his scout programming recognizing the fact that he was speaking to a superior officer and offering the audio files to report. He pushed the notifications aside. ::You called them Rescue Bots.::

Optimus ex-vented. "Yes, Bumblebee."

He didn't doubt his Prime. He would never doubt him. But he had to ask. ::Why are they a secret?::

"For. . . many reasons," his leader said. "It was thought that Rescue Bots were no more, having been massacred during the war for Cybertron."

He paused, perhaps expecting the scout to ask a question. Bumblebee did not. He tilted his helm to the side and waited for his leader to continue.

"They. . . recently came to Earth," Optimus said. "And. . . and I. . ." He hesitated again, shaking his helm. "I should have brought them here. It would have been four more bots that we need, desperately, but I. . ." He ex-vented again. "I could not. They are Rescue Bots, not warriors. And they do not deserve a place in this war."

::You didn't tell the team because they would want them here,:: Bumblebee guessed. ::Ratchet would want them here. Fighting.::

Optimus nodded slowly. "Will you also keep this to yourself, Bumblebee? Until the time comes when I decide it is right to tell our whole team."

There was never any question. ::I will.::

"I am thankful." Optimus straightened up, and Bee could hear his cables straining with tension. "Forgive me for waking you from recharge, Bumblebee. You may return to your berth, if you wish."

::What about you?:: Bee couldn't help blurting out the question, and the words came out a screech in the binary. He winced. He'd had millenia to get used to the new vocoder, but it still managed to surprise him in unpleasant ways.

"I have nearly finished my duties for the night," Optimus said, "and then I will recharge."

Bumblebee knew he should argue. His Prime was undoubtedly only telling him this so that Bee would go back to his berthroom and resume recharging- Optimus wasn't planning on doing it tonight. The memory of his leader looking so horribly, pitifully tired flashed in his vision. There was ample reason to argue with him, to try and convince him to go recharge.

But he didn't argue. He said, ::Yes sir,:: and turned around and went to his berthroom and powered down. And when he awoke the next day, he didn't speak of the incident at all.

::Anything new happening at your school?:: Bee asked, speeding a little around a curve in the way he knew Raf liked. He expected his little human friend to tell him something involving math or its strange cousin, algebra. Bumblebee never really understood when Raf talked about these things, but he supposed it was even- Raf didn't quite comprehend the war stories Bumblebee told him, either, and they still managed to get along very well.

What he didn't expect was for the readings he was casually keeping on Raf's vital signs to spike dramatically. Bumblebee cursed, slammed on his brakes, and spun off into an empty parking lot. ::Are you okay?!::

"Whoa, Bee- what?" Raf gasped, trying to fix his glasses. "What do you mean? What's wrong?"

::Your pulse! Spark-beat, or whatever it's called! It went up! Way up!:: Bee knew he couldn't transform, not while he was still in the town, but he wanted nothing more than to have access to his servos and hold Raf, make sure he was okay. . . ::Are you sick? Hurt? Oh, Primus, is it the Dark Energon again?::

"Bee, Bee, I'm fine!" Raf held up his hands. "Not dying."

Bumblebee's venting slowed. Cautiously, he ran another scan on his friend. The pulse was lowered somewhat, but adrenaline levels were up. Bee took a moment to use a human search engine- Google it was called, he thought- and find out what that meant. He determined, with a feeling of relief, that adrenaline only meant Raf was nervous. But that still didn't explain. . . ::Why did your pulse jump when I asked you how things were at your school?::

Raf chuckled awkwardly. "Well. . . ah, I guess I should probably tell you, huh?"

::Um. . . that would be nice?::

"Don't laugh."

::I won't!:: Now Bee was curious. ::What is it, Raf?::

"There's, um, there's this, ah. . . this girl? In my algebra class." Now Raf's faceplates were turning pinkish red. "I kinda. . . kinda like her. Like, like her, like her. She's, she's, ah, really smart?"

::Ohhh. . .:: Bee whirred, his chassis nearly vibrating with inheld excitement. ::That's so exciting! Are you going to spark-bond with her?::

"Like. . . marry?"

::Spark-bond!::

"If that means what I think it means, then no," Raf said.

::Aww.::

Raf chuckled. "Sorry to scare you, Bee. Maybe, um, we could go now?"

::Oh. Yeah, okay.:: Bee pulled out of the parking lot and back out onto the road. ::Sorry for freaking out,:: he said sheepishly.

"Don't worry about it," Raf said, smiling. "Guardian- that's what you're supposed to do, right?"

They drove in peaceful silence for a few kliks until Raf spoke up again. "Bee, I don't know everything about Cybertronian customs, but did. . . you ever like someone? Like, like someone?"

Bumblebee let his engine hum pensively. ::Well, I was one of the last mecha out of the Well, and by the time I was past sparkling- ah, child- um, youth. . .::

"Yeah," Raf said, indicating he understood what Bee was trying to convey.

::Well, by then, there was a war going on in earnest. There wasn't any time for. . . for relationships. It's called a spark-bond,:: he added, by way of explanation. Passing the town's limits, he sped up as he reached open road. ::Everyone else on Team Prime is already bonded. Arcee was bonded twice. Smokescreen. . . I don't know if he is. But it doesn't really matter. Ever since I was sparked, I've never met someone I'd want to do it with.::

"But if you did meet someone?"

::Maybe.:: He clicked out his version of a laugh. ::Gottta meet someone first!::

They talked about other things the rest of the way to the base, but Bee found it hard to get Raf's question out of his mind.

It was a lune later- according to the Earth calender, one month- that Raf called from across the base that a mysterious comet was falling from the sky.

"It could be a Cybertronian escape pod," the boy said, squinting at the screen. "Or something. . . worse."

::Where is it headed?:: Bee asked, hurrying over to where Raf sat. In a strange happenstance, Ratchet was not at the base, delegating ground bridge duty to Bumblebee's young friend. Raf was inordinately proud of himself- it had taken lunes (months) to learn enough about the ground bridge that Ratchet trusted him with it. Bee didn't feel like crushing his happiness by pointing out that Ratchet had also left Bumblebee at the base to help Raf if anything went wrong.

Raf turned around to watch Bee arrive. "From what I can tell, it's not heading toward any major cities," he said. "Let me triangulate the. . . umm. . ." His voice trailed off as he focused on his computer.

::It looks like it's heading toward an island,:: Bumblebee said.

"Mm-hmm," Raf murmured, his tiny human fingers moving so quickly that Bumblebee reset his optics, unsure if his processor was glitching and showing him the action in double-time. "Hold on, Bee. . . okay. It looks like the meteor landed on a little island called Griffin Rock."

Bee stiffened. The name clicked with the audio file he still had of Optimus saying the words, as if to tell him again that yes, it was the same thing.

". . . because everyone else is on a mission?" Raf was saying. Bee pushed the audio file away and tried to focus on his friend. ::What?:: he asked.

Raf looked at him strangely. "Should we call Ratchet or Optimus and tell them?"

Bumblebee was used to making up his mind quickly; war made swift decisions necessary. ::No, send me.::

"Bee, what?!" Raf said. "All by yourself? Is that a good idea?"

::If the meteor's dangerous, we can't wait for help. You know how to work the ground bridge, and I won't take long.:: He offered Raf his version of a grin. ::Just another scouting mission.::

Raf was smart. He could obviously tell that Bee was hiding something. But after all the time they'd spent together, Raf also trusted him. He nodded. "Okay."

Bumblebee helped him a bit with the ground bridge (mostly so he could feel useful) and stood at the base of the swirling green tunnel. Turning to face Raf, he waved, said ::Be right back, promise,:: and walked through.


	6. Behind the Rescue Part 2

Bumblebee landed on the solid ground as he stepped out of the ground bridge. As the vortex closed behind him, the young scout began to check his surroundings. He was on what appeared to be a foggy island that was devoid of human inhabitants. Bumblebee began to walk towards the source of the meteor.

As Bumblebee kept marching past the tall trees, he kept himself on constant guard. The gray fog covering the area made the scout feel extra cautious. He made sure his weapons were on standby. The last thing he needed was for the Cons to discover the meteor and get there before he could. He felt as if a group of vehicons was about to jump on the scout.

Especially since it landed so close to the island called "Griffin Rock", the place where Optimus had a group of Rescue Bots living there.

Rescue Bots.

Bumblebee was never involved with them whatsoever. But like many noble Cybertronians, he admired what they stood for. In the time of the War of Cybertron, Rescue Bots were the proud middle ground of the conflict. They both sought to save and rescue Autobots, Cons, and citizens.

But their role of neutrality ended bitterly when Megatron decided it would be best to eliminate all Rescue Bots. Millions of sparks were shot and extinguished. He and all Autobots mourned over their deaths, and many vowed to bring vengeance.

But now that he knew that there were still living Rescue Bots. It gave him a small glimmer of hope for their future. As long as Megatron never knew of them.

Suddenly Bumblebee paused when his tracking device began to beep. Four unknown Cybertronian life forms were now on the island with him. By the way they were moving, it seemed they have headed the same direction the meteor was.

Bumblebee was prepared to thrash these cons. After following their signal for a while, he could finally hear their heavy footsteps. He climbed up one of the trees to see if he could spot them secretly. It might have caused some leaves to fall, but he made sure to make zero movements.

He could hear them right under him, so he quickly leaped over to another tree. And then another, just to get a good shot of these foes. But he finally noticed that these Cybertronians were not vehicons.

It was then he realized his presence was known, as one bot muttered: "Someone's here." He leaped in front of the tree Bumblebee hid on top of with searing bravery.

Know that running away was futile, the scout landed out of the tree and into the group in front of him. It took him less than a minute to realize that he finally met the Rescue Bots.

—-

"It's...it's Bumblebee. It's an honor."

The two mechs grasped servos as a sign of greeting.

"I'm Heatwave" the fire truck mech greeted.

"Boulder." Said the great shorter bot.

"And I am Chase, we have all heard many stories about you."

Bumblebee held a bubble of excitement. These bots seemed to be around his age, so it made him feel less young. But he held his composure, for he could tell the Rescue Bots looked up to him.

:: Well it is nice to meet you too::

The first thing Bee realized was that all bots had their own human companions. But they seemed to have a connection to each other.

The second thing that Bumblebee realize was…

Bumblebee stopped himself for a second.

The last Rescue Bot before him seemed to be the most interesting. He was clearly a mech, though if he was a bit skinnier and had a less masculine voice, he could easily be mistaken for a fragile femme.

But by Primus was he cute.

Bumblebee then quickly walked over to the orange bot, who seemed to be speaking to his human allies. When he finally noticed the scout, Bumblebee gave a casual greeting of "hello there."

But the bot's response was so adorable. Or as Niko puts it, "kawaii."

The cute bot was so starstruck that he accidentally greeted himself as Bumblebee. When he tried to correct it, he covered his face in blushing shame until the child of the group corrected him. He finally introduced himself as Blades.

Strange name for such a cute Mech.

Bumblebee turned around and faced the rest of the group.

:: I am glad to finally meet you Rescue Bots.::

He informed the group of his reason for coming to the island. It turns out they were also searching for the meteor. So it was decided that Bumblebee would accompany them to the location of the meteor.

Hm. Mr. Bee has a nice ring to it.

And thus, and a new group was formed.

—-

Bumblebee, Heatwave, Chase, Boulder, and the Burns family walked throughout the forest. Blades was traveling with his companion by air. It seemed rather odd. Autobots never really had flight alts. The only Cybertronians who did were the-

Bumblebee shook his helm. He did not want to think of those brutes. Especially seeing how different the Rescue Bots were from Team Prime.

But judging by the fact that Blades kept bumping into treetops, made him think he chose the alt mode as a last minute resort.

Bumblebee decided to walk a bit of a distance from the group, secretly keeping an optic out for any possible Decepticons attacks.

He heard the sound of a helicopter whirling. Turning his helm he saw the orange and white mech himself. He seemed to pull out a rope with a hook and getting a bit too close to the-

"Bumblebee, grab onto my widge and-"

Blades didn't have time to finish for his hook got latched onto a tree. Resulting in the helicopter to be flying in circles. All the while screaming in distress, while his partner was struggling to be unhooked.

Bumblebee quickly ran up the tree that had ensnared the two.

:: It's ok, I got you.::

He unhooked the widge from the tree, setting both of them free. Blades flew back into the air, confirming that he and Danni were safe.

Danni let out a sigh of relief.

Blades, however, was not as satisfied with being released.

"I can't believe I did that! My one chance to work with a legend!" Blades howled in defeat.

:: Hey don't worry about it:: Bumblebee beeped happily, as he climbed down the tree:: Some days you do the Rescuing, some days you get rescued.::

—-

The rest of the team had finished inspecting the meteor. It was not dangerous or held anything that the Cons would want. Seeing that there was no reason to be concerned, they decided to meet at the boat.

Bumblebee was glad to at least go on a mission where no cons tried to take him out. Well, technically this wasn't an assigned mission since neither Ratchet or Optimus-

Oh, Scrap!

Bumblebee realized he left Raf alone at Base. Even after promising to be back before the rest of the team did. It's been hours, no doubt that his leader returned not too long ago. Oh he was in so much trouble.

Bumblebee turned to Blades, trying to not show any signs of panic.

:: Hey Blades, do you think you can come back with you guys? I need to check in with Optimus.::

"Yes," Blades peeped, "I think."

Blades turned to Chief Burns.

"Can Bumblebee come back with us? He wants to us our com screen to check in with Optimus Prime."

"Of course, glad to have you." Chief Burns responded.

"Check in?" Chase began "Optimus is aware of your presence here is he not?"

The yellow scout flushed in embarrassment.

:: Weeeelllll….Not...Exactly.::

Chase looked down towards Kade to translate what he said.

Kade just responded with a snarky "Thanks. I got that one."


	7. Behind the Rescue Part 3

The longest and best part of this chapter of Rescue Prime, here comes the Bumbleblades.

Chapter Text

Bumblebee luckily was able to communicate with his leader without getting a loud bashing from Ratchet. In fact, only Optimus was at the base by himself, seeing that Ratchet was forced to drive a poor Raf who had just confessed about the scout running off without permission. This did allow Optimus to have the base to himself.

Prime did feel disappointed in Bumblebee's departure, but he was relieved to hear the meteor was not dangerous.

The scout was then requested to stay with the Rescue team for a little while, so he could observe how the team functioned and how they worked with humans. Bee was excited to learn more of the team as well, so he agreed. Plus by the time he got back, maybe Ratchet would forget to nag on him for leaving Raf alone.

Before the call could end, Heatwave gave a noticeable cough to get Optimus's attention.

"Optimus sir" Heatwave started "If any openings come up on your team…?"

The Prime interrupted the Rescue Bot before he could continue his question.

"Thank you for your continued interest Heatwave. Rescue Bots, Good luck."

And with that, the call ended, with Heatwave giving a defeated sigh. Was that Rescue Bot wanting to join Team Prime? Did he even know of the Decepticons? The War? He figured to stay quiet about it.

Bumblebee was suddenly surrounded with Rescue Bots, as well as their human friend Cody. Each one wanting to be able to spend time with the scout.

Blades asked if he wanted to watch tv, and maybe karaoke?

Heatwave suggested they head to workout area and spar for a bit.

Chase requested they go over human law protocols or something along those lines.

Boulder seemed eager to show Bumblebee around Griffin Rock.

And Cody wanted to show off his go-kart.

Before Bumblebee could make a decision, the communication hub buzzed and the image of Chief Burns flashing on screen to inform the group of a recent event. The Police Chief said that there was a wall that was giving out and at risk of falling down a cliffside and onto the houses below.

Blades turned to the scout with beaming excitement"This is the perfect chance for you to see what we can do." Bumblebee tried to cover the feeling of blush started to form beneath his faceplates. Blades was just too adorable, how could oe like him stay like this throughout these years?

The Chief, however, made the recommendation of he watching for a distance with Cody. Bumblebee had to agree with that. While he was on board with helping others, it would be an inconvenience to explain to the rest of Griffin Rock of why he was here. Plus, Optimus ordered him to observe the Rescue Bots, and the last thing he wanted to disobey the Prime twice in one day.

The Rescue Bots then transformed and rolled out. Or by how Heatwave put it, "Roll to the Rescue!" That's a good tagline, maybe someday Bee could have one.

—-

Bumblebee did as he was told and watched the 4 bots hold the wall in place. They were something to been seen. Despite how different they were in personality, they worked seamlessly in the end. Same could be said for their human partners, who were currently trying to use girders and cement to secure the wall.

He then turned to Cody

::They make a pretty good team, don't they?::

Unfortunately, Cody couldn't understand what he was saying. (Sigh) What did he expect? So the scout gave the human gesture of a thumb up and Cody finally understood. Cody reminded him a lot of Raf. Not by intelligence, but by enthusiasm and kindness. He wondered what he was doing right now?

But his train of thought (another human term) was interrupted by the sound of an uncomfortable grunt. Bee and Cody turned towards the screen to see in surprise as Boulder suddenly dropped a girder and transformed to his alt mode.

But he didn't do it on purpose.

Not even a minute later did Heatwave do the same thing. Releasing his hold on the collapsing wall. With Chase following after.

The only one holding the wall now was Blades, and by the looks of it, he couldn't hold on for much longer.

Without any hesitation, Bee made his way out of the firehouse, transformed, and drove quickly to the group's location. Cody came along, sitting his passenger seat. They were in trouble and they needed help and fast.

After zooming down the roadway as fast as he could, he finally made it to their location. In one swift move, Bee drove over a pile of debris like a ramp, jumped over the group, and transformed. He grabbed a girder and leaned it against the wall, holding the wall in place and saving Blades. That was a close one, thank Primus he made it in time.

But Blades didn't seem to be as happy with being rescued for the second time today, as seen by his sad tone and his optics staring at the ground on defeat.

Bee transformed to let Cody out of the passenger seat. The boy ran out towards the now transformed bots with searing panic and concern.

"Guys, what happened"

Heatwave grumbl,ed "I wish I knew."

"Let's head back to the station" Chief Burns stat,ed "We'll figure it out there."

Graham, however, suggested that Bumblebee and Blades place in more girders to keep the wall secure. Bee transformed back to normal mode and beeped "On it."

The two bots then walked towards the pile of girders and placed them under the wall. the team was then ready to head back to base. But what struck the scout as odd was that they didn't leave immediately, as if something was preventing the Bots from driving on their own. Eventual,ly they did drive back, but they were moving like normal cars instead of robots in disguise.

Bee was going to question it, but at the moment as he drove back, he was worried for Blades. If he was a few kilks late, Blades would have been crushed by that wall and he could have joined the well of Allsparks early, as well as accidentally harm innocent bystanders. He was going to ask if Blades was okay but given by his now saddened mood, it seemed he wasn't in the mood to talk. What was making him so sad? He was alive and okay, and not stuck in Alt Mode like his allies.

Was it because of him? Was it about Bumblebee?

—-

By the time they got back to base, the humans were left in shock and horror.

On the drive back, the bots just...froze. They couldn't speak, couldn't control themselves, all was left was their still faces on their inner screens.

Blades though it was a prank at first, and tried to joke about it. But after a moment of nothing but dead silence, Blades realized they were not pulling anyone's stabilizing servos.

Kade said what everyone was think.

"They're just cars."

Cody tried to deny this fact. Bumblebee felt his spark drop.

Graham then asked a question that hasn't come to the scout's processor.

"Why is Blades the only one who hasn't been inflicted?"

Bee gave a shrug in confusion. He had no idea.

Cody then broke the silence with a realization.

"The Meteor!" the boy shouted as he turned towards Bee and Blades. "You two were up on the ridge while the others were down below!"

"There must've been something in that green dust?" Danni followed.

Suddenly Bumblebee got an idea.

::Maybe Optimus will know what to do?::

Blades translated the scout with concern.

They quickly headed to the communication room.

—-

After explaining the situation to their leader (Who was currently alone at the t base, after communicating with Rachet of it) Optimus spoke of the matter. It turns out that meteor's green dust contained a virus that caused the Bots to freeze in place and unable to move. What a scary thought.

"Blades?"Optimus turned towards the helicopter "Your Rescue Ship carried the antidote in its emergency response inventory."

The Prime then held up a disk into view of the screen.

"Contained in a disk similar to these."

"I know where those are" Blades whispered in growing excitement "We still have them!"

But the Prime had more to say.

"First we must know the precise cause of the paralysis. Using the wrong treatment could prove fatal."

Cody then spoke up.

"We think it was some kind of microbe the meteor picked up in space."

Optimus stared at the boy. Not in a harsh of frightening way, but in a way showed he was curious. It seemed this was the first time he had spoken or seen Cody. He showed gratitude in the fact that he was teaching the Rescue Bots the way of Earth. Bumblebee felt himself smile slightly, Prime was always the one to stand up for the little guy. Maybe it was because he was so big?

Cody beamed with pride after Optimus gave his thanks, Chief Burns put a hand on his son's back to show how proud he was.

Optimus then turned towards the scout.

"Bumblebee" He began "Work with Chief Burns and his team to assure that the meteor is completely destroyed. We must prevent the same thing from happening to other Autobots. Either by accident...Or by those wishing to do us harm."

Bumblebee gulped at what the Prime was implying. If the meteor's dust spreads back to Jasper, all of Team Prime would be frozen in place, unable to move. Or worse, if Megatron or any Decepticon were able to get a hold on it, and use it as a weapon?

"Time is of the essence, the longer the Bots are paralyzed, the higher the likelihood, they may remain that way forever."

It would be the end of everything.

—-

The situation just got so much worse. Now the 3 rescue bots were completely immobile and they were covered in gray and green moss.

Blades said it best. "The Virus is progressing, there's no time left to lose."

The Burns looked over the disk's Blades acquired from the Rescue Ship, unsure of which one was the correct antidote.

Bee was getting worried. Not just for the Rescue Bots, but for his team. Who knows if Soundwave managed to intersect the radiation of the meteor. Honestly, he didn't want to wait and find out.

The first plan of action was to determine which antidote had the closest properties of the meteor. In order to do that, they had to head back to the meteor and get a sample, while destroying it in the process.

"I'll go" Blades volunteered "I can get off the island quickly."

But Chief Burns was largely against it, fearing that the helicopter would end up just like the rest of his team. He was to stay here with Bee and Cody.

Bumblebee retaliated instantly. He turned to Blades as he spoke.

:: I have to go! Optimus told me to work with the team and the meteor is a threat to all Autobots.::

Blades translated the scout's plea, adding a small sly tone to emphasis the Prime's words.

Chief Burns had to let him help. Under the instructions that Bee stays on the boat at all times.

Bee could do that.

With the weather reports of winds increasing and them heading to the states, there was no time to lose.

Cody however still wanted to comfort his now frozen bot friends, even though it was unsure if they could hear or not.

—-

They boarded the boat and sailed as quickly as they could towards the island. Bee tried to hide his fear by every time he felt the wind few through his system, the more he feared for his team. How long has the wind been blowing? How far does it go to? Did the cons get the attention of it? Was his team safe? Question after question kept flowing through his helm.

He was glad that at least Blades was back on Griffin Rock, safe for now.

Graham then informed the Bumblebee of his assignment. He was to find the meteor, obtain a small sample, and then plant the explosive device with the timer. Seems simple enough.

But of course, the mission couldn't go as smoothly as he wished.

The currents were uncontrollable and the ship was heading towards a reef. The boat crashed into the reef of rocks, stopping the ship and knocking Graham off the boat and into the waves. The waves were so strong that he was struggling to keep his head up. Danni threw a life raft his wave, but he was swept away by another current.

Bumblebee knew what he had to do. He grabbed a rope and jumped into the water to retrieve the drowning human. But the rope wasn't long enough, and Graham was getting deeper. Bumblebee had no choice but to let go of the rope. As fast as he could, he grabbed the human and tossed his back towards the rope. Which he grabbed onto and climbed to the surface.

But now Bumblebee was falling. He luckily hit the floor of the water, stopping him from descending. Luckily he avoided falling into an abyss they laid right next to him. He was unharmed but found that he couldn't climb back up. He couldn't swim back up either, with the current pressing down on him. He tried again, still no success.

:: Oh no::, he beeped quietly.

He couldn't communicate with the group underwater.

He was trapped.

Now what was he supposed to do? There was a virus spreading meteor that needed to be destroyed, and the only cybertronian that could finish the job was trapped in the water. Was this to be his fate? Stranded in the water for the rest of his life? Trapped while his team and innocent Rescue Bots were infected and frozen? Would he ever see Raf again? Optimus? Ratchet?

Blades?

Bee tried to drive up the wall, but he still couldn't move. He transformed out of alt mode and slammed a fist into the wall in irritation.

:: IT CAN'T END LIKE THIS!::

Suddenly Bee's optics caught the sight of a hook attached to a wire gliding near his location. He recognized it. IT WAS BLADES!

Bee reached out of it but it flew over the abyss. It was getting away. Bee had no choice. He ran back and took a leap of fate. With the tips of his servos, he grasped the hook as he was pulled towards the surface.

"LOOK WHAT I CAUGHT!?" Blades explained with pride. Bee held a small chuckle at the cute remark. Blades was his hero.

"The explosive device is about to blow!" Chief Burns shouted. "Can you take it out to sea?"

Bumblebee felt panic at the bomb getting close to the destination. But with the wind blowing strong towards Jasper, there was no time to get another one.

:: Blades! Are you thinking what I'm thinking?::

Blades responded confidently.

"I'm right there with you."

Blades flew downward over the boat, allowing Bumblebee to grab the ticking bomb in one fell swoop. The helicopter zoomed towards the meteor location. Bee had one shot at this, and Primus knew he wasn't going to waste the chance to save all Autobots.

The meteor came into view, more green dust flaring off it. Bee didn't care if he was going to get infected at this rate. He let go of Blade's hook, punched a hole into the meteor, grabbing a sample, and inserted the explosive into the mark. With barely a second to lose, Blades transformed back to his alt mode as Bee grabbed his hook and they took off. The two bots felt the explosion from behind their backs.

As the ship got free from the rocks, both Blades and Bee jumped back onto the ship.

Blades gave a tired yet relieved "We did it!"

"But you were both exposed." Danni shouted in concern.

"I'm fine." Blades transformed out of vehicle mode "See? There was nothing to-"

Before Blades could finish his sentence, he began to feel woozy and transformed back into his alt mode. Confirming that he was now infected with the virus. And Bumblebee could feel the virus take himself.

The last thing he did before transforming completely into alt mode, was letting the sample roll out.

And then there was nothing but darkness.

—-

Well being infected wasn't all darkness.

It turns out the audio receptors were no infected by the virus, meaning that he could hear the humans work outside. Even though he couldn't move, the scout felt happy with the fact that no other Autobot would be infected with the virus. His team was safe and that's all that mattered.

He could only pray that they had the correct antidote to cure the team and himself.

After a while, he heard the sound of transforming taking place within the firehouse, filling him with excitement and relief.

The next thing he knew was feeling a metal circle get attracted to his side and a liquid pouring in. And then he a Blades transformed. They were cured!

:: Thank you guys, I'll be sure to inform Optimus that everything is okay, i'm ready to head back.::

But this time, the one to translate him was not Blades or any other bot. It was Cody. It seems he found a way to translate it. Raf would love to hear this.

Before departing, Danni felt like it was a good idea to take a group photo. Seeing no harm in it, Bee stood there as everyone gathered around. Danni definitely would get along with Miko. After the flash of the camera took off, Bee said goodbye to the Rescue Bots as he was ready to transform and depart.

But then Bumblebee then had one more idea before he left. As he saw the helicopter about to walk away.

:: Can I have a picture of just me and Blades?::

Cody happily translated the request to his sister.

"Really?" Blades asked shyly.

Bumblebee just responded by putting his servo around Blades and smiling for the camera.

Danni gave an awe at the sight after the picture was taken.

Bee then turned to Blades with a warm smile.

:: Thank you for everything Blades.::

The scout then reached his servo out to shake hands with the bot.

But something unexpected happened.

Blades didn't grab the servo, instead, he wrapped his arms tightly around Bee with one of his feet in the air. Blades was hugging him!

"You're welcome!" Blades giggled.

Bumblebee was taken back by this sudden surprise of affection. It might have lasted a moment but it felt so much more. Bee could feel his spark beat increase, and his insides grow warm. He patted the mech back to show his appreciation, but his blush showed that he was nervous.

As he drove off, he still kept thinking about it.

—-

:: RATCHET! I already told you that the meteor was destroyed and that I am cured of the virus! I don't need to take this many showers!::

"Oh don't give me that" Ratchet huffed "We can't take any chances! If I say you need to be cleaned up, then you will!"

:: OPTIMUS!:: Bumblebee whined as he stared at his leader from within the dripping shower. Optimus didn't even turn his helm to face the scout.

"Ratchet is just making sure you are alright. Besides, maybe this will teach you a lesson of sneaking out without permission."

Bumblebee whirled in disappointment. When he was ground bridged back to base, he was expecting his team to be applauding him for saving their lives. While the team was proud in a way, both Optimus and Ratchet were not too happy with the scout's decision to leave Raf alone at the base. After coming up with a reason why he stayed for a while (since Optimus wanted to keep the Rescue Bots a secret) Ratchet told Bumblebee to clean himself in the cybertronian sized shower. He was currently on his sixth one.

After 10 more showers, Bee was finally allowed to leave. But before he could run off, Optimus asked if he could have a private discussion with the scout outside of the base. After driving through the deserts of Nevada, they came to a stop near a cliffside. Optimus then asked what Bumblebee thought of the Rescue Team. Bee happily went over his findings of the team, how they worked, and even the humans they lived with. Optimus listened to every word.

:: Optimus?::

"Yes?"

:: When are you going to tell the team about the Rescue Bots?::

The Prime was quiet, then he spoke.

"I don't know. Only time will tell."

As they drove back, bee kept thinking about that hug from Blades. Such a small gesture he received made his spark do backflips. That cute mech had made him feel like he was the greatest thing in the universe.

Looks like Bee finally understood how Raf was feeling.


	8. To Rise Above Part 1

Summary:

When the Rescue Bots discover a shard of Energon underneath their island, they ask Optimus Prime to come. They are in no way prepared for what will await them as they journey below; something that will change all of their lives, and shake what they think they know to the core.

Notes:

Wow. . . this is where the crossover really starts kicking! I think this is the longest thing I've ever attempted to finish, so kudos to Burntuakrisp for asking me to do this. This first chapter starts off with some OC Vehicons (I couldn't resist- they're just so darn CUTE) so if that's not your thing, feel free to skip it and wait for the second chapter. Also, this is going to loosely follow the events of the Rescue Bots episodes "What Lies Below" and "What Rises Above", so those may be helpful to watch, but not necessary.

7J-00-5E, known to his friends and his conjunx as Joe, stood at his station and worked. Monitoring communications was the least exciting job the troops could be dealt on the roster, and Joe knew they were only given it so that Soundwave could take occasional breaks without fear of missing something.

But today was different. Today. . . he was on to something.

He patched in his audio receptors, dialed up the frequency, and listened. A signal from an unguarded comm line? Now- if he could just wedge into the stream, he could. . . hear the conversation . . .

If Soundwave had come across this, Joe thought sourly, he wouldn't only be able to hear and track the conversation, he'd be able to find out the identities, functions, and batch numbers of the mecha having it. But- because Primus hated him for some reason, apparently- Joe had found it first, and now the responsibility was all his.

He delved back into the data stream. Faintly, scraps of audio began to fade in, and Joe made sure to highlight the memory files the words went to.

"Opt-crzzch-rime-"

Joe's sensors flared. The unguarded comm line was trying to contact the Prime? Suddenly panicked at the possible importance of this conversation, he reached over and tapped the Vehicon at the station next to him- known as K85-L4-YY, or in special instances, "that slagging glitch that I can't believe I ever spark-bonded with". "Kelly," he hissed, "patch in over here and listen!"

Kelly did so, and the two mecha listened together as the audio scraps gradually became more coherent.

"Resc-scrrkksh- ots-chhrch-"

"Energo-krrhhkk-mine-"

Kelly looked at Joe. "Energon mine?" he whispered. "Do we know where?"

"I haven't traced the signal yet," Joe said, hoping his conjunx understood the hinting tone. Kelly did. He reached over and began to tap at Joe's keyboard. Joe had lost track of how many times he'd had to ask Kelly to track something for him, mostly in subtle hints (well, he tried to be subtle, anyway) and jerks of his helm. Kelly always ended up doing it.

"Griffin Rock," Kelly said finally.

"Where?"

"I don't. . . it's on the map. Some island."

Joe looked. "But there's an Energon mine there!"

"And we'll get the credit for telling Lord Megatron," Kelly added, looking around to make sure no other Vehicons- or worse, Starscream- could hear.

"If we hurry-"

"We can send a team and beat the Prime there-"

"Set up a mining operation-"

"With guards-"

"Like us!"

"We have to go tell Lord Megatron," Kelly said, his plating nearly rattling with excitement. He turned, went to alt-mode, and sped off down the corridor. Joe followed suit, speeding a bit to match Kelly's pace.


	9. To Rise Above Part 2

When the cave spiders came, Cody was sure it was the culmination of everything that had gone wrong that day. Uncle Woodrow stealing the drill; the vehicle going haywire; the terrifying ride down to this strange cavern; the terror of realizing that there wasn't a way back up; and now this. Spiders. Huge, white spiders.

Can't get much worse than that.

It was at times like these when he was intensely grateful, even more than usual, that he and his family were friends with giant, sentient, spider-crushing robots. And he'd never been more happy to see Optimus in the short time he'd known the Prime.

Quite honestly, one of the things that had crossed his mind as the drill careened wildly to the underground center of the island was Optimus was coming to see us and I'll miss it if I end up dying down here! That was followed by several reassurances to himself that he wasn't going to die. That he was on an emergency team. That he could handle situations like this.

And he had handled it. He'd gotten the drill to stop, and he'd gotten himself and his uncle out, and he hadn't died.

And now the bots were smashing the spiders. The day was certainly taking a turn for the better.

Explaining to Uncle Woodrow about the Bots was. . . interesting, to say the least. His uncle's face lit up nearly brighter than the Energon crystal that shone from behind them. Just watching him made Cody feel better about letting out their biggest secret.

Maybe things are finally turning around, he thought, watching Optimus try to explain things from his towering height.

As if in ironic response to his thoughts, a muffled crack rang out, followed by a ground-shaking sound reminiscent of an explosion. Before the last echoes of the noise had faded, Dad was ordering, "Team, into your bots! Woodrow, come!" He left the decision of which bot Cody should choose to him, instead stuffing Uncle Woodrow into the passenger seat of Chase's alt mode. Cody deliberated for a panicked instant, and then dived for Chase's back seat- his entire decision process was Dad. His siblings got into their partners with practiced speed, and the Bots switched back to root mode as soon as they had.

"Optimus, any idea what caused that?" Dad asked. Cody could see, over Uncle Woodrow's shoulder, the large, red-and-blue Prime frowning in consternation.

"I do not like to think of the implications," he said, "but it sounds like a Decepticon mining drill."

"Sorry, a what now?" Kade snapped.

"Decepticons?" Heatwave said, taking a step toward Optimus.

"I believe we must consider the possibility that somehow, the Decepticons have reached the Energon mine before us," Optimus said heavily.

"Well, let's get 'em, then!" Heatwave said, banging his fist into his other hand. Cody felt Chase's engine rumble uncomfortably.

"Our first priority needs to be getting the humans to safety," Optimus said firmly. "If there are, indeed, Decepticons inside this mountain-"

"Wait," Dani interrupted. "I mean. . . Optimus, sir, what do you mean by Decepticons?"

Optimus hesitated, the most disturbed expression that Cody had ever seen on his face. "I. . . did not want to. . ." he said, but was interrupted by another crack and the ground the Bots stood on shaking with the following rumbling explosion. Dad barely had time to shout, "Hold on!" before the ground fell away beneath Chase. Cody's stomach dropped, and he reflexively grabbed the seat in front of him. As Chase fell, Cody could see, for a brief moment out of the front window, all of the other Bots and Optimus falling through different sinkholes. Then his attention was diverted to the situation they were currently in, and as Chase struggled to control himself in free fall, Cody found his voice betraying him with a scream of terror.


	10. To Rise Above Part 3

Kade's heart readings were off the chart, his tiny human hands gripping Heatwave's steering wheel as if that alone could stop their rapid slide into the suddenly gaping hole. He was also yelling something, but after a moment Heatwave determined that it was only normal human declarations of fear, delegated one audio sensor to monitor him in case he said something actually useful, and blocked him out.

Optimus was sliding next to him, his pedes digging into the slippery, gravel-coated slope, grunting with the effort of trying to slow their fall.

. . . Their fall, Heatwave realized. The Prime had a servo pressed against his chassis in a desperately protective way.

"I can see the bottom!" he yelled.

"We must slow our descent," Optimus growled out, "or your human partner will not survive the landing!"

Oh. Instinctively, Heatwave tightened the seatbelt around Kade. As annoying as his partner could be, that was definitely not a fate he wished on him.

Suddenly, Optimus triggered a transformation sequence in his arm that Heatwave had never seen before; a large vibroblade. The Prime rolled over so that he was sliding on his abdominal and chest plating and ordered, "Grab on to me!"

Heatwave did so, wrapping his servos around the Prime's other arm. Optimus stabbed the vibroblade into the dirt slope, carving a massive furrow as his and Heatwave's weight pulled the blade through relentlessly. The Prime snarled aloud, digging the blade deeper into the earth.

Gradually, their fall slowed. Turning, Heatwave blasted his water cannons against the approaching bottom, slowing it even more. As they reached the end, he could not control a relieved ex-vent as he ran a scan on Kade's vitals and found them all functioning.

Unfortunately, his voice was also functioning quite well, and Heatwave bit back a groan as his partner began demonstrating that.

Blades didn't like falling. It was not fun. It was scary. It was worse than flying.

So, in his defense, you could hardly- hardly blame him for freaking out and forgetting that he had a flying alt mode before Dani screamed it at him for the third time. It wasn't his fault. And besides, once he'd remembered, he'd saved Boulder. Boulder and Graham.

The green bot was yelling up at him from his perch on Blades' hook. "I can see a tunnel below!"

"We don't want to go below!" Blades explained, nervous about the possibility that everyone else did, indeed, want to go below. "We want to go back up. Right?"

There was a short pause while Boulder, presumably, talked to Graham. Then the bulldozer called up again, "There's a blue light coming from the tunnel! We think it may be Energon!"

"Energon?" Dani repeated. "There could be more?"

"Optimus talked about a mine! We should go check it out," Boulder shouted. "For Optimus," he added, looking abominably hopeful and earnest.

"But. . . but. . ." Blades stammered, trying to convey the benefits of going back up to where there weren't cramped, underground tunnels.

"Come on, Blades," Dani cajoled.

Blades really didn't want to go further into the tunnels. He didn't want to.

"Fine," he sighed, huffing hot air through his cockpit vents to let Dani know how unhappy he was with this situation, and began flying lower.


	11. To Rise Above Part 4

Oh no, I made myself sad. . .

Chapter Text

Thankfully, the sinkhole Chase had fallen through was relatively small, and his passengers suffered no more than a rather hard jolt when he landed.

Charlie rubbed his head- it had banged against Chase's interior- and turned around in his seat, searching for his son. Cody was holding on to the back of Woodrow's headrest, his face frozen in delayed fear. Charlie had heard Cody's scream as they fell, and it had taken all of his self-control not not throw common sense to the wind and climb back there to fight off whatever it was that had caused that sound. It took him back to when Cody was only a baby, tiny and new in the crib next to his bed, crying in the middle of the night for food or simply to be held. There hadn't been a mother to feed and hold Cody then- only Charlie, his hands clumsy from lack of sleep, pressing the bottle to his son's mouth and singing to him softly in the dark of the kitchen until he fell asleep in Charlie's arms.

The slight tingling as Chase scanned his vital signs pulled him out of his memories. Sitting up, he looked to the side and checked Woodrow over- briefly, he knew Chase would alert him if his brother had sustained any injuries- and asked, "Any idea where we are, Chase?"

"I'm afraid not, Chief," his partner's voice answered. "All I can tell is that we seem to have fallen into some sort of catacomb of tunnels."

Charlie tried to look out through Chase's chestplates. He could see the vague outlines of tunnels, but he was too high up to tell for sure. "Can you let us out, please?"

"Of course," Chase said, and folded down to vehicle mode. Next to Charlie, Woodrow let out a compulsive "Whoa," and grabbed his armrests. Charlie patted him on the shoulder and got out.

As Woodrow climbed out and helped Cody, Chase transformed back to bot mode.

"Will you shine your lights on those tunnels?" Charlie called. With any luck, they could try and find the rest of the team. It was their best bet.

Chase turned on his headlights. Charlie peered into the openings of the tunnels, realizing that they looked basically the same and that they'd have to randomly choose one. He'd known that, but he hated not having a reason for what he did.

"We could split up," Woodrow suggested from behind him.

Charlie cursed inwardly, turned around, and snapped, "No. That's the worst thing we could do. We just have to pick one."

"How about that one?" Cody said, gesturing at a tunnel that was rather higher than the rest. "Chase can fit in it."

"It's as good as any," Woodrow said.

"Chief?" Chase said, cocking his helm to the side and waiting for Charlie's decision.

Charlie sighed. Leadership was the worst burden he'd ever chosen to bear. "Let's go in that one."

The human was angry. Or scared. Perhaps both. Optimus hadn't been around Kade Burns much, but he was getting plenty of experience now. The young man was very. . . vocal. More so than Agent Fowler.

But Optimus tried to be understanding, especially given the half-stifled embarrassment and frustration radiating from Heatwave's EM field. He did not want Heatwave to be angry at his human friend on Optimus' behalf.

"Perhaps you would like to let your partner out?" he asked.

"Yeah," Heatwave said quickly, transforming down to alt-mode and swinging open his door. Kade Burns stumbled out, dropped to his knees, and. . .

Hmmm. Perhaps this was the organic equivalent of purging your tanks. Optimus ran a quick scan on the human's vitals, determined that he was not severely ill, and crouched down so as to be on a better level with him.

"Are you. . . all right?" he asked.

Heatwave went back to root form and shook his helm, ex-venting. "The humans call it puking. At least, Kade does. I think he's fine."

"M'all right," the human choked. "Jus' need a. . ." He gagged again.

"While Kade's doing. . . that," Heatwave said, and Optimus stood, wincing as his leg cables strained- he was used to his own human friends being on eye level or so on railings, and hadn't had to bend down like that for some time- "We should try and figure out a way to get out of here."

"There seems to be a tunnel of some sort leading out of this place," Optimus said. As Heatwave turned to look, Optimus realized that he had never transformed his arm back from the vibroblade. Dusting it off, he slid it back in and flexed his servo as it came out.

Heatwave glanced at him, then at the long furrow they'd gouged in the dirt on the way down. "Optimus, you said there may be. . . Decepticons in the mountain?"

Optimus felt a great, sinking despair in his spark. He had tried so hard to protect Sigma 17 from the war. He'd kept them secret from his own team for as long as he could, monitored communications, carefully not told them anything they didn't need to know. And now. . . and now the war had found them anyway.

He remembered his words to Bumblebee. They do not deserve a place in this war. They still did not deserve one. But it looked like they would get one now. And Optimus could not protect them this time.

He ex-vented and shook his helm at Heatwave, indicating that they would speak of it later. For now, they would follow the tunnel, wherever it might lead them.


	12. To Rise Above Part 5

Pointless chapter is pointless. . .

Chapter Text

It was an Energon mine- if the myriad jutting crystals that emanated blue light were anything to go by. They looked like bigger versions of the one the Bots and Optimus had found. Graham had seen the Bots inject syringes of liquid of the same bluish hue into their frames, and once, he had come downstairs to find them each tipping cubes of the stuff into their mouths. High grade energon, Boulder had explained then. A special stash we had saved in the Sigma. Just to celebrate.

"Whoa," he heard Dani say from beside him, climbing out of Blades. "It's beautiful."

Huh. It was pretty. But that wasn't what they needed to be focusing on right now.

"Boulder," he said, "if we go back the way we came, can Blades fly us out of here?" Maybe they could take some crystals and go find the others.

His partner turned and surveyed the helicopter thoughtfully. Blades blinked at him. "Maybe. But we still have to find a way to harvest some of this Energon."

"Can you use your sonar imaging to tell where the team is?"

Boulder folded down to bulldozer mode. "Sure. Let me find a wall and. . ."

As Graham turned to watch his partner begin to lift up the front end of his alt-mode, a familiar-sounding crack rang into his ears, and the engineer in him remembered it instantly.

Oh no.

"Get down!" he yelled at Dani and Blades, jumping for Boulder's door. The earth-shaking rumble followed not an instant sooner than he had scrambled inside, vibrating the ground and Boulder. Graham was sure he felt his brain shaking in his head, and he pressed his hands over his temples reflexively. This was much more intense than what had caused the sinkholes. It went on for what seemed like forever-

When it had stopped, Graham found himself blinking intensely to chase away the shiny, blurry vision that he had for some reason. He took his glasses off and rubbed at his eyes with the heels of his hands. "Ow," he said, and meant it. His vision came back in patches, but it came back.

"Ow," he repeated.

"Are you okay?" Oh, this was Boulder. Boulder, still in vehicle mode. He should probably get out.

"I'm okay," he said. He got out.

"Graham!" Dani. This was Dani. "Graham, are you-"

"Okay," he repeated.

Boulder was a robot again- weird- and came over to him. He felt tingly for some reason. Weird.

"I don't know what's wrong with him," Boulder was saying. "I scanned him and his vitals are fine."

"Let me try," Blades said.

"Try what?" Dani asked.

Graham felt the tingly sensation again. Weird. "I was a sort-of medic for a little while on Cybertron," Blades offered.

"A medic for Bots, though, Blades," Boulder said.

"I can still detect neural firings and stuff," Blades said. "My scanners are more refined. Here- look at this, Boulder."

Graham's eyes must have really been not working, because he didn't see Blades give Boulder anything. Boulder nodded, saying, "Ah," like he had just understood something.

Graham was thankful that Dani voiced the confusion for him. "What do you mean? What did you show him?"

"Oh- a file," Blades said. "You guys don't have processors with data storage, do you?"

"No, but you do?" Dani said incredulously. "How much? Like five hundred gigabytes or something? I've been wasting money upgrading my phone."

"I'm not a phone!"

"Okay," Boulder said. "What are you going to do for him, Blades?"

"Oh," Blades said. "I don't- know that much about human biology-"

"Come on, Blades, please," Dani interrupted. "Just try?"

"Okay," Blades said. "Okay. Okay. Ah, Boulder, can you make a- a very small sonar wave- thingie from your hands or something?"

"Because of the-"

"Displacement of the vibrations, yes."

"Well, I'm not pretending to understand that," Dani said, "but whatever you guys are gonna do, we better do it fast."

"Alright," Boulder sighed. "I'll try it, Blades."

Graham saw his partner reach out a finger toward Graham's head, blinked at it, and managed a mumbled "What?" before a seemingly invisible force struck his brain over and over, and he blacked out.

He came back to three worried faces; Blades wringing his hands together, Dani biting her lip as she shook his shoulder, and Boulder, his optics sparking with panic, holding a hand on Graham's torso.

"Hey, guys," he managed.

"Thank Primus you're not dead," Boulder blurted. "I thought-"

"You're not dead," Dani said firmly. "Okay, answer me these questions. What's your name?"

"Graham Kasey Burns."

"How old are you?

"Twenty-two."

"Who are they?" Dani pointed at Boulder and Blades.

"Blades, Boulder; Rescue Bots," Graham recited. "Can I. . . get up now?"

"Oh," Boulder said, lifting his hand up. Graham took Dani's hand and got to his feet.

"So. . . what happened?" he asked.

Dani glanced at Boulder, who said, "The sound that caused the sinkhole happened again. You were inside me when it did, and I think the vibrations may have. . . well, I don't know how to explain it, but you were really disoriented. I hit you with a little. . . little sonar wave." He looked slightly guilty. "But you're okay, right?"

"I guess I am." He rubbed the side of his head. "So. . . do we have any idea what's causing that?"

"The rumble?" Dani said.

"Yeah. Didn't Optimus say he knew what it was?"

"He said it sounded like 'a Decepticon mining drill'," Dani said immediately. "But he didn't tell us what a 'Decepticon' was."

There was a creak, and a thump. Graham and Dani turned to look at Boulder, who had collapsed on the ground. The bulldozer was vibrating, very slightly, a trick of his engine that Graham had learned meant that his partner was anxious or uncomfortable.

"Boulder?" Blades said, very quietly. "Your. . ."

"Oh no," Boulder was saying. "No, no, no. . ."


	13. To Rise Above Part 6

I got a chapter finished! Yay! (Short though. . . *sigh*)

Alternate title: I play around with Cybertronian biology and pretend I know how it works.

Chapter Text

Cody had been right; the tunnel was large enough for Chase to walk in. However, "walk" was quite different than "walk comfortably". His helm kept scraping at the rough stone of the ceiling. Still, it was better than trying to drive over the sharp and jagged rock floor in his alt-mode, so he supposed he had at least one thing to be happy about.

"Chase, will you try your comm again?" Chief called.

He did, although he had little faith that it would work- not after the last seven times he had tried it and gotten nothing but static. The sound greeted him once more as he attempted to open up his team's personal frequency.

"I'm afraid it still doesn't work, Chief," he said regretfully, watching his partner's shoulders slump just the tiniest bit.

"Guys!" This was Cody, running back from where he'd gone ahead. "I can see a light up ahead- one of the tunnels."

"Daylight?" Chief asked.

Cody shook his head. "It's. . . blue."

Chase's systems perked up. Chief Burns voiced the thought that had immediately leapt into his processor. "Chase, do you suppose it could be Energon?"

Chase hoped it was, but he didn't want to race to conclusions. "Let's go see."

"So, I don't understand," said Chief's brother- Woodrow, Chase remembered, feeling just a twinge of dislike, Uncle Woodrow- as they began walking toward the tunnel Cody indicated. "Is Energon, like, what you guys eat or somethin'?"

Chase's traitorous processor managed a Primus give me strength before he firmly shut the offending thought down and admonished himself for being so. . . bothered. Woodrow was Chief's brother, after all.

Maybe that's why you're so annoyed, another thought offered, and Chase disabled the finer points of his internal computations, hoping that would stave off the jealousy. Turning to the man, he said, "These things are not easy to explain, but the easiest interpretation is that, yes, it is what we. . . eat, in a way. It is what fuels us."

His tone was a bit more robotic than normal, and Chase knew Chief had noticed- if the strange look his partner gave him was anything to judge from. Chase wondered if he should try and explain to him that this often happened when he turned off the less necessary systems of his processor, and resolved to save the conversation for a later date.

"Ah, like gasoline," Woodrow was saying confidently, like he understood.

Chase found himself clenching his servos, and disabled more of his computations.

"The light's just up ahead," Cody called. "It's definitely blue."

"Definitely blue," Chief agreed. "Chase, what do you think now? Is it Energon?"

It was, and Chase was pleased to say as much. Or, as pleased as he could be with his finer neural systems turned off.

"It looks like a lot of it," Cody added. "Maybe a mine or something?"

"We should go and check it out!" Woodrow suggested excitedly. "If it's what you Cybernonians eat, then maybe that big guy'll be happy that we got some."

"Cybertronians," Cody corrected gently. Chase was thankful; it saved him the effort of trying to be polite.

"Should we go check it out?" Chief asked him, interrupting his train of thought. "Do you think it's safe?"

Something pinged at the back of Chase's processor in response to the question, a warning inside a memory file of some kind, but with his finer systems disabled, he couldn't bring it totally into his perception. He resolved to look at it later, once his computations had cycled back on, and replied, "I am sure that it is. In any case, the others may be there, and we can find them, at least."

"Then let's go!" Woodrow exclaimed. He took off running toward the tunnel, Cody following close behind.

Chase ex-vented. He detected Chief performing the human equivalent- a sigh- and felt better. Slightly.


	14. To Rise Above Part 7

"It's a volcano," Kade pronounced. He turned in time to see Optimus blink at him- blink? Do they blink? Is that the right word for it?- in gentle confusion.

"I apologize, Kade Burns," the enormous robot rumbled- and ohhh gosh that was an intimidating voice, everything about Optimus Prime was intimidating, why was he just noticing this now- "I am afraid I do not understand. According to the sources I know, are not Earth volcanoes filled with molten lava?"

"Yeah," Heatwave added. "I didn't think the mountain was-"

"I didn't mean 'volcano' in a literal sense," Kade snapped, cutting off Heatwave. "I just meant that it was the inside of the mountain, and it's hollow, so. . . I dunno, it just seemed like the right word to use."

The two Cybertronians leaned over the ledge and looked up at the long, tapering inside of the mountain, then down at the shadowy, empty depths of space below the ledge.

Heatwave scoffed. "Right word to use. Okay. Well, if it's not a fiery smelting pit of death, we can climb up it, right Optimus?"

"It stands to reason," Optimus replied. "Kade Burns, if you will get inside Heatwave?"

Heatwave was folding down into vehicle mode before Optimus had finished speaking. Kade sighed, reached out his hand to open the door, and yelped as Heatwave swung it open and nearly knocked him on the head. Muttering words that were entirely too descriptive, Kade climbed inside.

Heatwave muttered something right back at him as he transformed to bot mode, something that sounded suspiciously like "embarrassing little squishy slag-licker", but Kade chose to ignore it in favor of smirking as Optimus gave Heatwave a disapproving look. Obviously, the big bot didn't approve of Heatwave's language.

"So you're going to climb up the inside of the mountain?" he asked, becoming aware that an embarrassed Heatwave wasn't good news for anyone sitting inside him next to his vents, and trying to distract him. "What about the others?"

"We are hoping to find a way to get out of the mountain," Optimus replied. "I will not leave your team in here alone, Kade Burns. This I promise. But I want to find a way for them to escape."

"Escape?" That sounded. . . strange. "Why escape?"

Optimus sighed- did they sigh?- and said, "I believe there may be a danger inside this mountain that your team is in no way prepared to face. My hope is that I can find them and get them away from here before they are forced to."

"You need to tell me," Heatwave said forcefully. "Tell me, tell them- what is going on?"

"Heatwave-"

"You said Decepticons, Optimus. I need to know. Is my team in danger? Is my family in danger?"

There was a long pause. Kade tried, unsuccessfully, to figure out what was going on.

"Yes," Optimus said finally.

"Yes," Heatwave repeated. "So, the war is not over."

"No."

"No," Heatwave hissed. Kade could feel his engine vibrating faster. "Our world, our Cybertron, is gone, destroyed, and you're telling me it wasn't enough?! The war followed us here?"

"And so did the Decepticons," Optimus growled. "Heatwave, your anger is warranted. I deserve whatever loss of faith in me you are feeling. But we have no time to argue. We must save your team."

Heatwave huffed. "You're. . . right. You're right. Let's go."

"The. . . mountain opens at the top," Kade ventured. Optimus turned to look at him, and he swallowed as he continued, "I did a presentation in 11th grade. The scientists designed it so that. . . no, ya know, I don't know why. But I know there's a switch or a lever inside that will open it."

"Or a button," Heatwave said, lifting his foot up.

"Huh?" Kade said. He looked down, trying to see what he could from Heatwave's glass, and saw, as he had said, a small button. "You stepped on a button without knowing what it did?!"

"First, I didn't do it on purpose. Second, it is doing something. Look."

"The mountain," Optimus said.

Kade looked. The top was slowly folding open, letting in sunlight.

"Well, that's just great," Heatwave said, in the special Heatwave voice that he saved for truly irritating situations- at least, that's what Kade thought. "Even if it's open, we can't climb up there with the humans fast enough to stop them from starving! We don't have any human food!"

"Hmm," Optimus said. "I believe I may have a plan, Heatwave."


	15. To Rise Above Part 8

Evil laughter* And now we return to my babies. . .

Chapter Text

"This is awesome!"

If Kelly still had access to his mouth components- which he hadn't since the mass-reformatting- he would have smiled at the excited tone in his conjunx's voice. As it was, he made do with an amused pulse of his EM field. Joe had been basking in the euphoria of being posted as guards in the Energon mine that they had discovered since Lord Megatron had granted them a cursory "well done" and assigned them the post. He also hadn't stopped hissing happy exclamations of disbelief in their good luck since then.

They stood next to each other, watching the Vehicon miners carve off chunks of crystal, and Kelly lightly bumped Joe with his servo. "Calm down," he muttered. "Be professional, and we might get an assignment like this again."  
"Okay, okay," Joe said under his breath, but his field still buzzed irrepressibly.

They resumed their positions, glancing around the mine as the miners worked and pretending that they weren't bored. Technically, they should have been on opposite ends of the mine, covering both entrances, but after seven joors of talking through comms, Joe had decided that he was sick and tired of that and left his post to come stand by his conjunx. Kelly, of course, hadn't shown that he was pleased in the slightest with Joe's action, but he also hadn't told him to go away, and Joe knew that what that meant.

"Kelly," he was saying now, poking him, "when we get done with this, do you want to-"

"Wait," Kelly said. His audio receptors had been dialed up, and an unfamiliar sound was now feeding into them. "Do you hear that?"

Joe tilted his helm to the side. "Sounds like. . ."

"Voices. I don't recognize them."

"It could be Autobots," Joe said, and although he initiated his gun sequence, Kelly detected the brief fizz of fear in his field.

"I don't think so," he said. "They sound. . . off."

Joe ex-vented and stood up straight. "I. . . I'll go check it out."

"Wait. I'll come with you."

Joe hesitated, glanced at the entrance where the noises had been coming from, and back at Kelly. "Yeah. . . yeah, alright."

As they moved forward together toward the open tunnel, Kelly's audio receptors flared again, warning him of the voices that had been growing louder even since he'd begun noticing them.

And then the owners of the voices came into view.

"Squishies?!" Joe whispered incredulously.

"Humans," Kelly corrected under his breath.

"Fleshies."

"Organics."

"Whatever! They saw us!"

This was true. The taller of the organics was tilting his head back to observe Joe and Kelly, tiny little squishy mouth open in an expression of disbelief.

"Cyber. . . tronians?" Kelly distinctly heard him say.

"How does he know that?" Joe hissed. "He's got to be one of theirs. Look, the little one is the same size as the hacker."

Kelly took a step toward the two, and said little one backpedaled. "I don't know!" he said, presumably to the larger one. "I don't know them!"

"You're probably right," Kelly said to Joe. "Alright, let's take care of them."

"Ugh, squishies give me the creeps," Joe shuddered, but he reached out and grabbed hold of the bigger one. Kelly ex-vented and snatched up the little one.

"Ah- Ow!" the one in Joe's servo screamed. "What- What're you doing?!"

""They're so loud," Joe lamented. He charged up his electro blaster and held it next to the human. Kelly did the same, and his human let out a terrified gasp.

"Here's hoping there's no more organics today," he said.

Before he could release the firing mechanism, a voice shouted out, "Stop!" It sounded so authoritative that Kelly automatically hesitated. He turned to see another organic running toward him, followed by a smallish, blue-and-white bot that charged ahead of the fleshling and put a servo out to hold him back.

Shock flashed through Kelly. He didn't recognize this mech. It wasn't one of the Prime's team. And his insignia was. . . strange.

::Autobot?:: Joe commed him.

::I don't know! He's not in the database!::

"Let them go," the strange mech said, his vocalizer fizzing with fear. "Now."

Kelly looked more closely at his insignia. It was an Autobrand, but with two circles surrounding it in a manner he had not seen on any other Autobot. ::I think he is an Autobot.::

::Search the insignia in your database,:: Joe commed. ::I'll handle this.::

Kelly nodded and stepped back, beginning to comb through the Decepticon records for any sign of the strange insignia.


	16. To Rise Above Part 9

Dani heard the scream first. It echoed from all the way across the mine, short and bone-chilling and familiar. Uncle Woodrow.

"Guys. Guys!" she said, shaking Graham from where he was kneeling by Boulder and Blades, his hand on the shaking green bot. "Did you hear that?"

Boulder lifted his head up. "The-"

"Uncle Woodrow?" Graham said, standing.

"He's in trouble!" Blades cried, pulling Boulder to his feet. "It's a cave-in!"

"No," Boulder said, his eyes narrowing. "It's Decepticons."

"Okay, can someone explain to me just what the heck Decepticons are?!" Dani bellowed, but Boulder was already transforming to vehicle mode, barking, "Get in!"

"Come on," Blades said, and she turned to climb into his cockpit, growling in frustration. As he lifted off, she saw Boulder take off across the mine, driving faster than she had ever seen him go.

"Tell me," she said to Blades.

"Bad guys," was Blades' surprisingly laconic answer. "I'm going to try and call Optimus."

"Okay," Dani said. "Bad guys. I can handle bad guys. But the comm didn't work before, why would it work now?"

"Because I can detect his signal on the network now," Blades said, as if that explained everything. "Now shh. Blades to Optimus Prime!"

"I hear you, Blades," came in Optimus' voice, staticky and breaking up, but there.

"We need your help, Optimus. There are Decepticons in the mine and-"

"The mine?" Optimus interrupted. "Give me your coordinates."

"Transmitting them now," Blades said, and the comm fizzed as he, presumably, sent something. "Where are you?"

"Heatwave, Kade Burns, and I are not far from you," Optimus' voice said.

"Optimus, I think Uncle Woodrow may be in trouble," Dani shouted, opening her comm line. "Can you get here soon?"

"I can," Optimus said, and Dani felt some semblance of relief. "Heatwave and I have found a way for you all to escape from here. Be ready when I come."

"Okay," Blades said, and closed the comm channel. "Dani-"

"Blades."

"I don't know what we're going to find over there-"

"And I don't know why you think I care. Uncle Woodrow's in trouble. We're going to help him."

"Please. . ." Blades' voice was almost too quiet to hear. "Please don't die."

"Die?!"

"Decepticons, Dani, they're. . . they're not like what we're used to."

"You need to tell me what's going on, Blades. Tell me now!"

But before Blades could speak, they came over a high patch of crystals and Dani saw what he had meant by "Decepticons".

Bad guys? She could handle bad guys. But. . . this?

::Rescue Bots!:: Kelly commed him. ::They were supposed to be eradicated in the war, I don't know what they're doing here-::

::Are they combatants?:: Joe sent, his focus never leaving the blue mech in front of him.

::They are not supposed to be.::

::Good.:: Joe stepped toward the mech- the Rescue Bot- and held out the fleshie. "You want him, Autobot? Come and get him."

The mech's dentae clenched, his optics wide. "You are- you are a Decepticon?"

"Proud to be one." Joe thumped the Deceptibrand on his chest with his free servo. "And if this is one of the Prime's little squishy humans, then I kill him right now."

"No!" the other organic shouted, the one who had ordered them to stop. "Don't kill him!"

"Dad, help!" the little one in Kelly's servo screamed.

"He's not on Optimus' team!" the Rescue Bot cried, stepping forward. "He's neutral. Both of them!"

Joe glanced at Kelly, unsure what to do. But he had to keep up the tough, unrepentant Decepticon appearance, and so he deliberately squeezed the organic in his hand just a bit too hard. It let out another scream. "Neutral? It's a human. And you're an Autobot." The mech glanced down at his insignia. "You expect me to believe the Prime isn't just waiting around the corner to attack the mine?"

"No," came a voice that was all too familiar, and Joe turned to see a bolt of energy explode from the Prime's electro-blaster.

Time slowed down as it struck his chest, spreading agony throughout his frame, forcing him to drop the organic as the pain overwhelmed him. He crashed to his backstruts. The last thing he heard was Kelly screaming his name, the last thought he had I don't want to die.


	17. To Rise Above Part 10

Cody was dropped to the ground in nearly the same instant that Optimus shot the other robot. The one which held him was running after the fallen one, shouting something, but Cody blocked out everything else as he scrambled frantically to his feet and ran to his dad, clinging to him in panicked fear. His dad squeezed him almost unbearingly tight, running his hands over him, panting, "Are you all right? Are you all right?"

"Yeah," Cody managed, breathing hard. The words made another thought jump into his mind, and he remembered, with a flash of horror-

"Uncle Woodrow!" came a shout, and Cody turned to see Graham jump out of Boulder and start running toward them. Chase hurried toward where Uncle Woodrow lay on the ground, picked him up, and ran back toward the group.

"Blades, check him out," Dani ordered- Dani was here, Cody thought in a dizzying blur of relief, We're all here, all back together- jumping down from her partner's cockpit. Blades transformed and stepped toward Chase, holding out his hand and emitting a bluish-looking spread of light.

"Ah-" Uncle Woodrow gasped, his face contorting.

"His support structure- these thingies," Blades said, patting the part of his frame where ribs would go if he was human. "They're broken. He needs a repair."

"Fast, please," Uncle Woodrow moaned.

Cody stepped back, horrified, then glanced at Optimus, a thousand questions pounding through his mind. What is happening? Who are they? Why did they attack us?

What didn't you tell us?

Optimus looked back at him, and his face, stern and hard and angry as it was, relaxed for just a moment into an expression that ached of regret and insecurity and self-doubt. Cody stared at him, not wanting to say anything, but at the same time desperately hoping Optimus would explain something, tell Cody exactly how everything had gone so wrong.

But at that minute there came a groan from where the robot holding Uncle Woodrow had fallen, and Cody turned to see him slowly getting up from the ground, helped up by the one that held him. Optimus' eyes narrowed, and a mask slid across his mouth.

"Chief Burns," he said, "take your family and go with Heatwave. We have found a way for you to escape."

Dad nodded sharply, and began herding everyone toward where Heatwave stood, Kade looking out through his window. Cody hesitated, turning toward Optimus again.

"Optimus-" he said.

"Go, Cody Burns," Optimus said softly.

"But-"

"Go!" the Prime repeated, turning away- and Cody's eyes widened in shock as he saw an enormous sword-looking thing appear from Optimus' right hand and a terrifyingly large gun from the other. Optimus- Optimus was- he had-

No. Optimus was going to protect them.

Cody turned and ran after his father.


	18. To Rise Above Part 11

I challenged myself to write an entire chapter with nothing but dialogue. . . let's hope it went well.

Chapter Text

"I'm fine."

"Joe-"

"I'm fine."

"Your spark chamber won't take another hit!"

"Then I won't let it take another hit!"

"Don't be stupid, it's the Prime-"

"What?! What, you want me to just accept that we're going to die?"

"You just got shot!"

"And you let your fleshie go!"

"What was I going to do? Not go and restart your frikkin' spark?!"

"You- what?"

"What, you think your scrap-afted excuse for a reformatted spark is strong enough to cycle itself back from an overcharge?"

"Kelly-"

"It's not."

"Kelly-"

"I gave you a frikkin' jump-start, you overconfident slagger, so don't you lie there and act all noble. We're in this together, and we are not going to die!"

"Fine."

"And I- what?"

"Fine. Comm the miners. We're fighting."

"They're not soldier class-"

"They have tools. If they can cut through an Energon crystal, they can be used as weapons."

"Oh- Okay. Okay. So. . . we're doing this."

"We're doing this. Ow!"

"Are you- Don't try and get up all at once, you stupid-"

"Comm the miners, Kelly."

"Comming them. Oh, Primus below, he's noticed us."

"Shut up. Shut up. He's supposed to be reasonable-"

"You probably broke that organic, Joe!"

"What?"

"The way he screamed? Humans are fragile."

"So what? It's a fleshie."

"I know, but the Prime-"

"Scrap. He's not going to talk, is he?"

"That vibroblade that just came out? I don't think so."

"Did you comm the miners?!"

"Yes. Yes. They're coming."

"Good. Good. Okay. We're fighting. Ready?"

"I love you."

"Shut up. I love you too. Ready?"

"Ready."


	19. To Rise Above Part 12

"Listen," Heatwave said, trying to ignore the fluttering of fear inside his spark as his team looked at him, their faces scared and unsure and full of hesitant trust, trust in him, trust he wasn't sure he could earn. "Optimus has a plan to get us out of here."

"We have to hurry," Chief Burns interrupted. "Woodrow needs a hospital, and fast."

"Okay," Heatwave said. "Okay. This is the plan. We have to block off the volcano- we found a big rock- and ignite the Energon in the mine in order to blow the rock off and up the volcano."

"You want us to blow up the mine?" Boulder blurted.

"Boulder, you know what Decepticons are capable of," Heatwave snapped. Immediately, he regretted his words as the green bot looked down, a hurt and angry look on his face. Boulder's relationship to his Decepticon brother was not something they spoke of often. But Heatwave didn't have time to apologize. They had to move.

"If we all work together, we can get it done," he said, narrowing his optics.

"What. . . about. . . those things?" Woodrow managed.

"Optimus is going to distract them." His spark turned inside him as he imagined leaving Optimus to fight off all the Decepticons inside the mine alone, but his Prime had ordered him, very specifically, not to join in the fight, to get the other Bots and the Burns family out. And Heatwave had agreed. What could he do but agree?

"He can fight them," Cody said confidently. "He's Optimus Prime."

Heatwave felt a great rush of thankfulness for Cody Burns, but he turned aside and began to walk toward the volcano. "If Optimus is buying us time, we have to use it," he growled. "Blades, Boulder, Chase- get your partners in and help me roll the rock over the volcano opening."

"Uncle Woodrow can go in Boulder," Graham said.

"No," Chase said, gently laying him on the ground. "I've got him. Chief, if you would help him into my alt-mode?"

"Fine," Heatwave said. "Come on, we have to hurry."

As the Bots began to move the large, flat rock into position- Graham shouting instructions all the way- Heatwave could hear, faintly, the sounds of battle from the mine, sounds of shouting and firing lasers and stomping feet. He hated himself for abandoning Optimus, hated himself for being afraid. If he was honest with himself, he preferred this- working with his team to escape- over fighting enemies that he had thought didn't exist anymore, enemies with weapons and blasters, enemies a good half-frame taller than him. Even if Optimus needed him. And that admission- even if he only thought it briefly to himself for one nanoklik- filled him with more insecurity and anger than he had felt since the war.

As soon as this is done, he thought, as soon as we escape from here- he banished the tentative if that crept into his processor- Optimus needs to explain to my team. To. . . to me. They need to know why this is happening.

I need to know.

Please.


	20. To Rise Above Part 13

I made myself sad AGAIN

Chapter Text

The vehicons were many, and they fought with an intensity that Optimus had rarely encountered from them. At first, as he approached the two who stood before him, leaning on each other and holding out their blasters with a desperately determined air, he had had a moment of hesitance. He considered appealing to them, offering them a way out. _These two, _the Matrix pulsed at him, _these two are bonded. _It was the same warning it had given him as he fought Skyquake. _Someone will mourn if he dies. _It did not forbid him from fighting- and Skyquake _had _died, despite Optimus' efforts to urge him to abandon the fight- but it told him, all the same, and the extra knowledge was an extra guilt as he found, once again, that he had failed.

_These two are bonded. _Optimus hesitated. He had to. Even the memory of Chief's brother screaming as the mech squeezed him in his servo could not deter him.

But in the instant that he did not fight, he was attacked on all sides by the miners, and the two guards were running at him and firing off blasters relentlessly at his helm, and he grunted and fell to his knees- the miners' tools cutting into his frame from everywhere, carving away plating and slicing Energon lines. Five warnings flared on his HUD, warnings of Energon loss and iminent chestplating compromise and others all piling on top- and all the while the Vehicons were pinning him down, the two bonded blasting away a steady path to his spark while the miners relentlessly hacked into him from myriad other places. Optimus' pain sensors screamed alight all over his frame, attempting to drown out logic, rational thought, a plan to escape.

_No, _he thought, a thought torn from the pain and the terror. _No. I will not leave the humans and the Rescue bots to face Decepticons alone._

_I am Prime, and I need to face what I've done._

And he stood.

He flung three miners away from him, freed his arm, and transformed it into his electro-blaster. He fired at one that tried to target a main Energon line in his now-exposed neck cables, and the miner flew backwards into the cave wall. Growling, Optimus unsheathed the vibroblade in his left servo, impaled two, and threw them to the ground.

He hurt, but he fought back, because he was Prime, because he _had _to.

"Stay down, you fraggin'- _Prime!" _screamed one of the guards, one of the bonded, except Optimus refused to listen to the warnings of the Matrix, because the bonded were going to hurt his Rescue Bots, and he could not allow that to happen.

He struck out viciously, wildly, tearing and beating and ripping until his blades were dripping blue and screams filled his audio receptors and broken frames fell around him. He staggered, fell to one knee again as a miner lunged in and sliced the support cables in one leg. One of the warriors struck him across the helm, a hit that shook his processor until his vision was fuzzed with static, but he had no time to recover; he forced himself to lift his hands and deflect the blaster shots with his blades. He struck out again and again, blindly, letting his instincts guide his slashes and strikes until he was free enough to stand.

"You- will not- harm the Rescue Bots!" he snarled, struggling to his pedes, snapped cable fraying and Energon leaking from a thousand places. The two guards- the only ones left- staggered back, fear written in their postures.

"I will give you one chance," Optimus said, very quietly, "to leave. Go back to Megatron, and never come back to Griffin Rock."

There was silence for such a long time that Optimus began to wonder if they were going to accept his offer. The two bonded stood with their heads down, not speaking.

The Prime realized that they were communicating through comms.

_::We can't give in, Kelly.::_

_::I didn't want to.::_

_::I'm. . . I'm glad we had time to be together.::_

_::I will see you in the Allspark.::_

_::Together, then?::_

_::Together.::_

They rushed at him, leaving him with no choice but to fight back. And he did.


	21. To Rise Above Part 14

"Heatwave," Optimus' voice crackled into the comms, and Boulder lifted his head. " Does your team have the blockade in place?"

"Yes, Optimus," Heatwave answered. Boulder nodded, although he knew Optimus couldn't see- he had just finished placing the last sustaining rock over the tunnels leading out. "Should we send the explosives in?"

Before Optimus could respond, Cody shouted, "Guys, my hoverboard won't work! I can't make it-"

"Aggh, it's broken," Graham said, shaking it angrily. "We can send it a yard, maybe two, into the tunnel, and then. . . it's not going to reach the mine."

"Optimus," Boulder said, pressing his finger to his comm and trying to block out the panic, "the hoverboard won't work, the explosives won't get to the mine-"

"I. . . will come and take it," Optimus' voice said, and Boulder couldn't tell whether it was just the comm line breaking up, or if the Prime really was as horribly tired as his voice sounded.

"Optimus, you can't," Heatwave shouted. "How are you going to get back in time with-"

"I will take it," the Prime's voice repeated.

"He says he can do it," Boulder said to Heatwave, turning off his comm. "He can. He's Prime."

Heatwave ex-vented. "He says a lot of things, Boulder."

"What do you mean?" Blades interjected. "Optimus wouldn't. . . I mean. . . Heatwave?"

"He didn't tell us about the Decepticons," Heatwave muttered. "He didn't tell us about the war not being over."

"What?" Kade said, craning his head up from Heatwave's glass. "I don't understand at all what you guys have been talking about for this whole-"

"Not now, Kade!" Heatwave barked.

"I have a right to ask!" Kade yelled back.

"But now's not a good time-" Boulder said, trying to exude calm at Heatwave in an attempt to get him to relax.

"Whatever it is, we'll talk about it once we get back," Chief Burns shouted at them from Chase's alt-mode. "We can't afford to lose focus right now!"

"Understood, Chief," Heatwave said, after a pause in which Boulder was halfway sure that his team leader would start yelling at Chief Burns himself.

But then Optimus staggered in.

Limping, battered, so covered in Energon that his red color was nearly obscured by the glowing blue liquid, and with damage that would make a medibot give up his profession.

"Primus," Boulder whispered.

"The. . . explosives?" the Prime managed.

"O-Optimus," Blades said, "you can't-"

"Be ready for when they are set off," Optimus said firmly. He carefully took the hoverboard from Graham and inspected it. "I will make it back in time."

"Yes, sir," Heatwave acquiesced grudgingly.

"But Heatwave-" Boulder said, horrified.

"Just listen to him!" Heatwave bellowed. "We need to take care of our team!"

"But-" Blades tried, and Heatwave threw up a servo, stopping the helicopter in his tracks. Turning to Boulder, he growled, "Tell Optimus how to activate the explosives."

"You- you press the button," Boulder said helplessly. "Once you remove your finger, the bomb goes off."

"Instantaneously?" Optimus asked.

"Y-yes."

"I had planned on making the impact of the hoverboard release the button," Graham put in, looking sick. "Optimus, if you can't get out of there in time-"

"You will escape nonetheless."

"You can't," Dani said. "Optimus, you can't."

"I must," Optimus said, and Boulder barely had time to register that the Prime's tone was the saddest he had ever heard it before Optimus had turned around and limped out.


	22. To Rise Above Part 15

_Twenty steps._

He hurt. He _hurt. _He wanted Ratchet- he wanted Megatronus- no, not Megatronus- he wanted help. He didn't want to be Prime.

He couldn't think.

What had they _done _to him?

_Fifteen steps._

Energon mine. He needed to reach the center of the mine, where he could plant the explosives and ignite the crystals so that the Rescue Bots could escape.

But his leg cable was snapped- _how many times, Optimus, you need to take care of those cables of yours, they don't sprout from the ground. . . _Ratchet's voice. Oh, he needed Ratchet.

_Thirteen steps._

There was no way to make his leg support him.

He made it support him anyway.

_Ten steps._

Bodies littered the ground. Broken frames. Frames that _he _had broken, that _he _had offlined-

_Primus, _he hated himself.

He hated the war.

Hated his pain, especially. His pain and his weakness and his inability to protect the only ones that relied on him.

_Seven steps._

He knew he should be formulating a plan to escape, once he'd released the trigger. _Instantaneously. _But he couldn't. He couldn't think. He could only walk, one pede in front of another in a sickeningly mundane rhythm.

_Five steps. _

He pushed aside all thoughts except _reach the Energon crystals._

_Two steps._

He lunged forward with a groan of pain and shoved the hoverboard with the explosives into the large patch of crystals. He pressed the button with a savage twist of his thumb, and turned, transforming mid-escape and attempting to get clear of the impeding blast. He accelerated, hearing his transformation seams straining with the effort to keep him in alt-mode.

Behind him, the mine exploded.


	23. To Rise Above Part 16

Thank you, everyone who left kind comments- they really inspired me to keep working on this!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

"Everyone on?" Charlie shouted.

A chorus of affirmatives answered him, varying in intensity. Chase simply nodded, pulsing his lights. Charlie knew that he was attempting to stay as still as possible so that Woodrow wouldn't shift in the backseat and injure himself further.

"Hold on," he said, climbing into Blade's vehicle mode with Dani. "If Optimus can make it back in time-"

"He will," Dani said firmly.

"He will," Blades said, less firmly.

"Okay. When Optimus gets back," Charlie amended, "the blast will be right behind him. We have to be ready to either help him get on the rock, or. . ."

"Or?" Heatwave said.

"Or make sure Chase stays on the rock so he can get Woodrow and Cody out," Charlie finished. "That's the priority."

"But. . . _all _of us escaping is a priority too. . . right?" Blades said.

Before anyone could answer, an unmistakable noise- an explosion- flooded the open chamber, coming from the tunnel leading toward the mine, and there was no time for any reluctance.

He could see the Rescue Bots. All safe, all together on the rock, waiting for the blast he had started that would take them to safety.

The knowledge made him just a little more content in the reality he found himself in- which was that he could feel the flames licking at the back of his alt-mode, and that he knew he was not fast enough to outrun them.

But the Rescue Bots were safe.

The Rescue Bots and the humans were safe.

He could die, if he died, and he would not argue against it.

But then Heatwave jumped off the rock, and Boulder, and Blades, and ran toward him, and he could have wept if he were not so focused on driving and keeping his pain inside. Why were they doing this? They needed to escape! They needed to-

"Optimus, come!" Heatwave roared. "We'll help you on!"

Optimus growled and accelerated with everything he had, spending his last reserves of energy to stay ahead of the ever-increasing blasts behind him. He transformed and leapt toward the Bots, and they grabbed him as he landed- his armor scraping the ground as he roughly fell- and hauled him onto the rock. He felt the hands of the ones he had tried to save saving him as the blast reached them and blew their platform up and out of the mountain.

Notes:

We're wrapping up- only about two more chapters to go. XD


	24. To Rise Above Part 17

"Cybertron," Chief Burns said. "You mentioned that when you told me about them."

"Yes," Optimus said.

"Do you miss it?" Cody said quietly, to Boulder. "Cybertron?"

"Would you miss Earth?" Boulder said, just as quietly.

"Your planet," Dani said cautiously. "It's. . . it's dead?"

"Yes," Heatwave interjected. "We knew that. What we didn't know was that it wasn't enough."

"Heatwave," Blades said unhappily.

"It wasn't enough," Heatwave repeated savagely. "The war was bad enough on Cybertron, and now it's here."

Optimus had insisted on staying out of stasis, intent on explaining everything to the Bots and the Burns family. It had been a long four hours, but the bases were covered and Optimus had not passed into forced recharge from the pain, and so they went on.  
Kade raised his hand- an unusual thing for Kade to do, but Boulder supposed that the sight of Optimus Prime so thoroughly covered in Energon and beaten had cowed the human's impulsiveness a bit. "And those things. . . the robots that hurt Uncle Woodrow. . ."

"Decepticons," Optimus said heavily.

"When we left Cybertron, the Decepticons were an uprising," Heatwave said angrily. "A small uprising that Optimus Prime and the Autobots were fighting. How did it go so wrong?"

"Yes," Chase added. His optics were tired- he and Chief Burns had spent the first hour after they escaped from the mountain taking Woodrow to a hospital. "Why did they come to Earth?"

Cody, sitting with Chief Burns, looked over at Boulder, perhaps wondering if he would put his own question in. Boulder did not. He had only one, and that one would wait.

Optimus ex-vented. "I do not know, exactly, why the war has followed us here. I never meant to involve you in a war that I should have ended aeons ago."

The Prime looked down.

"It is my fault," Optimus said quietly. "This, what happened at Griffin Rock, is my fault. And this is the war. When humans are harmed, it is the war and it is my fault. It is your place," Optimus said firmly. "It is because I am Prime that I must face what I have allowed to happen."

"You did allow it to happen," Heatwave said, but Boulder could see his anger dimming. "You didn't tell us that Decepticons were on Earth. We could have died. Woodrow could have died."

Optimus closed his optics. "Yes."

"You wanted to protect us," Blades said. "But the war found us anyway."

"We can't escape it," Chase said.

"We shouldn't want to escape it," Heatwave said.

"We need to face it," Boulder said.

"We can face it," Heatwave said.

"Together, we can," Chase said.

Optimus stared at them.

"We can do this, Optimus," Heatwave said firmly. "We're Rescue Bots. And if there's danger out there, we need to be able to know you'll let us face it."

Boulder sighed. "Optimus, I know we're not as. . . experienced as your team. We spent what we thought was the entire war in stasis. But we're Cybertronians. And we deserve to be told things."

"I agree," Optimus said, and he sat up, looking at them. "It is my fault that you were forced to face this, and I can only say. . . I can only say that I am sorry."

Boulder swallowed his question. He couldn't demand things of Optimus now. Heatwave could, perhaps, but when the Prime looked so horribly exhausted and yet determined to face everything they threw at him, Boulder's resolve faded.

"We can only move forward," Chase said heavily. "If our team still wants us here, after. . . after what's happened."

"Yes," Chief Burns said immediately.

"Yes," Graham echoed.

"We'll never not want you guys here," Cody said. "No matter what."

"If those- those things, the Decepticons- if they're out there, we'll need you here more than ever," Kade mumbled.

Dani put her hand on Blades' chassis, smiled up at him, and said, "We'll always need you guys."

Boulder felt a great swell of affection.

"And- and Optimus," Heatwave said, his bravado stuttering and dying at its core, "we- we- I forgive you. For not telling us. I- I understand why you chose to do that."

"Heatwave-" Optimus said, looking lost.

"No," Heatwave interrupted. "I forgive you. There's no arguing, Prime."

"Me, too," Blades piped up, attempting to mimic Heatwave's stubborn attitude.

"Me, too," Chase said, not bothering to imitate it.

Boulder looked at him, lifted his head, and deliberately said, "Yes, Prime. Me, too."


	25. To Rise Above Part 18

He clawed his way up from the wreckage of the mine- broken, half-melted, leaking a pint of Energon with every foot he climbed, and with an aching loss in his spark that hurt far more than all the other damage.

His conjunx was gone.

It took orns to climb out, and with his chronometer damaged, the time seemed to stretch and drag out as he inched his way up, racked with misery. At first, he mourned. His optics had been removed in the reformatting, but that didn't stop him from crying- slowly, and then all at once, as he wept and felt the pain in his core grow greater with every second.

As he climbed higher, the sorrow turned to rage; and he screamed curses at the Autobots, at Primus, at his conjunx, and at himself, wishing and begging for another chance.

By the time he reached the top of the mountain, the rage and the pain were both gone, and all he felt was a cold, vicious need for revenge. And he knew exactly how to get it.

He called for a groundbridge- he could not have flown even if he had had the strength to transform, not with his wing missing. Soundwave met him as he dragged himself through, listened to his raspy request to see Lord Megatron, and took him there- the spymaster supporting him as he limped and dripped Energon, leaving a bright, glowing trail behind him.

"Rescue Bots," he gritted out to Megatron, spitting static and wobbling on his pedes. Soundwave stood next to him. "Four non-combatant bots. They survived the eradication during the war."

"Four non-combatant bots did this?" Megatron said, looking him over. "Killed all the miners and the other guard?"

Hot rage pulsed against his spark. "N-no, my Lord. The Prime was there as well."

"Hmm," Megatron said, and his optics narrowed. "We will have to do something about this. As for you, visit the medibay."

He stood upright, resisting Soundwave's servo. "Lord Megatron, I am dying already." He pulled his hand away from his chest and displayed his destroyed spark chamber. Clamping his servo back, he continued, "The other guard was- was my conjunx endura." He glanced at Soundwave. The spymaster had agreed to keep their secret, but what did it matter now? "I have no reason to try and prolong my life. All I wish is that you willdestroy the Rescue Bots so that I can enter the Allspark peacefully. . . knowing my conjunx has been avenged."

Megatron gave him an appraising glance. "What is your name?"

"4J-"

"No," Megatron interrupted. "I know you give yourselves organic names. What do you call yourself?"

He closed his optics. "I am Joe, Lord Megatron."

Kelly had suggested his name.

Kelly, who was dead.

"Hmm," Megatron said. "This is war, and mecha die every day. I cannot pretend to care very much that another Vehicon has passed into the Allspark, but I will tell you this: The Rescue Bots will be dealt with."

Joe nodded. There were a thousand things he could say- it has been an honor serving you. Decepticons forever. Till all are one. But he kept his vocalizer silent and removed his servo from his spark.

He could feel the swirling ball begin to shrink, his life force begin to fade away. He gave a shaking vent, watching the glowing ball leave his body. Kelly, he thought, I will see you soon.

He was dimly aware of his body hitting the ground, and then nothing- as he faded away into an eternal whiteness.


	26. The Interlude Part 1

The battle had begun like no other.

Then Megatron couldn't just keep his mouth shut.

The battle had been going on like any other. Both sides viciously trying to tear into each other. Shots flew across the field, a mixture of blue and red. Vehicons were the main bodies strewn across the grass. Blue bled into green.

In the middle of it, were the two leaders. Exchanging punches while chaos rained around them. Each, elegant from millennia of war, dodged almost all of them. Any strikes that met were lucky shots. Until, a blast had hit the warlord from behind. In a lucky chance an Autobot soldier had gotten the time to shoot. The blast did little but bounce off and distract the target. The Prime took his chance.

Rushing forward, the Prime unsheathed his blade. With one good swipe, another deep cut had joined the endless scars on the warlord's face. The sharp shriek of metal joined the noise of the battle. Bright blue marbled with purple gushed down his face as he roared with rage. The warloard attempted a counter-attack, twisting his blade and barreled forward. Just barely nicking a bright red shoulder. The Prime wrenched himself away to glare at the gray mech.

"Megatron, you stand in this war for no reason but to lengthen it! Why do you fight for nothing?" Optimus, the Prime, accused. His whole frame was stiff in rage, as though this was the first time he realized this fact.

Megatron sneered. Optics narrowing into thin red slits. He scoffed scathingly, "Surely you think that is not the sole reason?"

The warlord sprung back into action, raising his blaster. Optimus twisted his body and stepped to the left. The heat from it barely grazed his side. The two clashed again. Blades met with a loud clang of metal.

"What other reason is there, Megatron?" Megatron's mouth twisted with offence. He ducked under the Prime's blade to attack from the back. Optimus snapped back around, jolting back from a nearly devastating strike. Landing on steady pedes, he raised his own blaster, only to be met with the sight of Megatron's own.

"I am no mindless fool, I have a goal for this!" The two faced each other, both not willing to lower their guns for a second. The rumble of fuel firing up filled the mechs' audials.

The sun was setting in the distance, painting the green grass with fire. Oranges danced in the sky while bots fought to their death. Splattering of blue, dents, cuts, everything. The Cybertronians finally put to rest on the ground were far from their own world. From their own home. Whatever reason Megatron had, it better be in the interest in Primus himself, otherwise it wasn't worth it.

"Then, shall you tell me this reason? The reason behind so much death?" Red shone off the Prime. Like a blaze flickering in a forest. A sign of hope, of life.

The only spark that danced in the warlord's optics was a blazing house fire. Dangerous, unneeded, preventable. The glint of the sun turning his armour shades of orange and red. In this light, he truly did look evil.

"This death was the reason. The death of the Autobot cause!" Megatron's servo gestured with uncensored passion. The excitement from the idea clear in his optics. Optimus scowled behind his battle mask, his blaster roaring back to life. The warlord's grin was sharp. "Are you not appeased to the idea? Do you truly believe you will survive this war?"

"This is not a war," Optimus cut in, voice filled with appall, "this is a mindless fight. There's nothing to be gained!"

"Yet you still fight?"

Both sides were silent. Blasters still raised, ready to fire. The battle roared on around them. And for a second, Optimus was glad he had hidden this from the innocent. Hidden this feral encounter. Hidden them from this sight.

Optimus vented heavily, "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings. We are fighting for our-"

" Freedom? What freedom will they have when they are strewn across the ground like the spare parts they are!" Megatron's words were aggressive and confident, like he knew something the Prime didn't. If there was one thing he had learned in this war, is that you never wanted to hear that tone. "Every single one of them!"

An image file popped up into his vision. Four smaller bots, even smaller than their own yellow scout, all together. They were smiling, with Optimus behind them. Humans were in the front. There was an enthusiastic child with yellow hair in the center. They were all happy. And for the first time in years, Optimus felt reassurance. Not every single one of them.

"Even those tiny-"

The Prime's helm snapped up. When had he lowered it? His lines ran cold. His whole frame stiffened. The image was thrust out of his processor with a violent click.

No .

"-useless-"

The battle raged on. More soldiers fell. The sun was still shining just over the horizon.

"-playthings you call-"

Optimus slackened in shock, blaster lowering.

"-Rescue Bots!"

Helms snapped over. Optics from the Prime's own team were wide. There was a roar over the coms. The Decepticons have already known. Megatron smiled menacingly.

"I promise you that, Optimus Prime." He paused, scanning the field. After finding what he was searching for, his optics met Optimus'. He didn't know if he was imagining things. Didn't know whether this was just a sick joke from his own processor.

But not even his own battle-ridden mind could make up the victorious look that lit up the warlord's face.

He bellowed out in joy, "Decepticons, retreat!" Jets roared to life, Vehicons transforming and joining their leader in the sky. The dark sky, covered by clouds. The setting sun was covered. A sign of light, of hope, of life. A sign that was snuffed out like a Spark.

Optimus manually rebooted his systems. Battle Protocols screaming at him, demanding he raise his gun again because he wasn't out of danger yet . They were swiped clean with the restart. When his processor was clear, he vented and turned back on his audio systems. Only, he was met with things he really did not want to hear right now.

:WHAT THE SLAG?:

:Rescue Bots?:

:Optimus what was he talking about?:

:No way! This is awesome!:

::"Uh oh… are you alright Optimus?"::

:Optimus report!:

Optimus winced. Protocols appeared, directions for calming a crowd. He waved them away with a mental servo. Inventing, he steeled himself for the future conversation that would surely come.

:Ratchet, prepare a groundbridge.:

Energy spiked around him. The familiar feeling of a bridge's magnetic tug did little to calm him. The air was alive with the sound of it whirring. Turning on his pede, he was met with the sight of the vortex. Green, like the bloodied grass. Green like the fallen leaves. Green, like- like Bulkhead giving him a look.

The wrecker's arms were crossed over his chest. His face was twisted in an array of emotions. Angry, scared, confused. Field pressed against his frame, with a furrowed optic ridge.

Bulkhead glowered at the Prime, "What did he mean by Rescue Bots , Optimus?"


	27. The Interlude Part 2

Summary:

Optimus has some explaining to do.

But his choices might not be final.

Notes:

For clarification here are some words that are in here that I have either gathered or headcanoned myself!

Klik- About a minute  
Breem- About 10 minutes  
Groon- About an hour and a half  
Nanoklik-About a second  
Solar Cycle- A day  
Lunar Cycle- A Month, or one full turn of the moon  
Terra Cycle- A year  
Cybernalm- Medical supplies, can be made from both Earth and cybertronian material mixing together. Used as bandages and repairs to stop energon leaking.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Others were gathering around Bulkhead. Arcee had a similar stance as the larger green warrior, faceplate carefully neutral. Smokescreen just look awed, doorwings fluttering in a almost child-like excitement. His face split with a wide grin. Bumblebee was glancing between the bots and Optimus. His optics were nervous, spiraling out and shrinking again. The bot had already known of the Rescue team before, but had promised to keep it a secret. Optimus had wanted to tell them when it would be appropriate, maybe after the war. Well, it seems like now would have to suffice.

Optimus let out a heavy ex-vent. He hated lying to him team. Now, he could see the distrust and the excitement. Excitement over the possibility of other fighting bots. Distrust over their Prime, their leader , not telling them something so monumental. He despised having one of his own not tell the others over his own orders.

"All will be explained with time," the Prime offered to his team, quickly glancing back up to the groundbridge. Arcee shifted on her pedes, refusing to back down. Bulkhead scoffed lightly, but unfolded his arms. The two speedsters already look resigned, accepting the order without further complaint.

But Arcee was always the one to inquire, to ask the difficult questions. For that, it was no wonder the team respected her. "How do we know you will not mention it again? You clearly didn't trust us with the information earlier," she demanded, Bulkhead nodding in agreement. Her optics sparked with a challenge. The femme was not going to allow him to stay silent, no matter the cost. A small burst of honor lit up his spark for just a nanoklik.

"I had wanted to wait until the time was right," Optimus hummed, "but it seems like Megatron had other ideas."

:"Speaking of which,": Bumblebee chimed in, the scout's doorwings up in alarm, :"Megatron knows they exist too. They could be in danger!":

With a nod towards their scout, "Bumblebee is correct, if Megatron knows of them it is dire that you all learn of their existence and how to help," the Prime paused, " However, I wish to tell all of my soldiers at the same time. So, if we all could go back to base this will be easier for all involved."

Arcee's optics narrowed, but she took a step back. "After you then," she gestured towards the vortex. Optimus gave a small nod to the small warrior, eyeing the portal besides her. He lifted a servo to his audial.

:Ratchet, make sure Wheeljack and the humans are at the base.:

:Did something happen?:

The medic's concern was almost palpable. Guilt rushed throughout him. He probably expected some great speech about a warrior's death. Not the information about how he was keeping something from the team.

:I have something to say, that all need to hear.:

Ratchet was silent over the com. A few kliks passed and then,

:Understood. They have been notified.:

Good, this will make everything easier . Optimus huffed,

:Thank you.:

The clouds had cleared from the skyline, the sun truly setting. Every place the light touched was bathed in red. It glimmered off the grass and his soldiers alike. There they stood, looking like they were ready to march off to war. It felt like an omen, a sign of anger. They probably will be angry, when discovering how long the Rescue Team had been here.

"Autobots," they all straightened. Optimus ex-vented, "return to base."

* * *

It had taken all of the humans a breem to all gather into the main area. The children claimed they had just been playing their 'video games' from deeper in the base (but by the look on Miko's face, all of the Autobots would have to watch their step for a couple Solar cycles). Agent Fowler was already on his way, and June had been lecturing her child on the importance of good nutrition. When the bots had arrived, anxious and angry, it was almost surprising how quickly they came to the conclusion that something was wrong.

Wheeljack took an additional groon to get to the base. The Jackhammer was covered in soot and burn marks. Wheeljack himself even had a few dents. It didn't even take a klik for Ratchet to hurry him into the Medical Bay, checking over energon lines and possible permanent denting. All the while cuffing the wrecker over the head and angrily lecturing him over internal damage.

In that time span, Bulkhead managed to crush a plate of Cybernalm, Arcee almost glared two smoldering holes into Optimus's helm, and Bumblebee was desperately trying to get Smokescreen to stay quiet. Everytime Smokescreen would even open his mouth, Bumblebee was there beeping loud enough that Ratchet complained from the Medical Bay. Smokescreen would always pout, promise to be silent, and almost immediately reveal the big news about how apparently there were Rescue Bots still alive.

"C'mon Bee! I promise not to spoil!" the speedster would announce with self-centered promise.

Then Bumblebee would huff a mechanical sigh, :"That's what you said the last fifteen times Smokescreen.":

"I promise this time!"

"Hey, what are you two talking about?" Miko chimed in, the glimmer of mischief in her eyes.

Smokescreen lit up like the stars in Nevada night time, excitement flowing off of him in waves. "Oh Bee doesn't want me to tell you that there's R-"

The yellow scout lightly cuffed the speedster over the head, beeping in outrage, :"What happened to 'you promised'!":

"I know, I know! I'm sorry!" the mech yelped while the human girl muffled her cackles behind a palm.

The others in the room were just silent. The small warrior shifting her glare to the floor, arms still crossed. The former wrecker crushing the Cybernalm from before into a type of lob ball. It was messily made, denting and crinkled in all the wrong places. Bulkhead turned to face the wall, shifting the ball around one final time. Winding his arm back, he gripped the crumbled silver substance in one servo. Miko just happened to look over in the nick of time. The biggest grin split her face

Scampering across the base's floor, the teenager yelped to her larger companion, "Yeah Bulk! Crush that thing to pieces!"

Huffing, Bulkhead threw the lob ball with all of his might into the wall. When the Cybernalm made contact with the base's wall, it had sounded like a scream of metal and thunder from Earth's skies combined. The ball almost immediately cumbled. The seams cracked, the Cybernalm crumbling into silver dust. Miko cheered with joy.

" Bulkhead! " the enraged the roar of the Team's medic, Ratchet, echoed around the room. At the door of the medbay, there he was in all of his glory. His optic ridges, normally hidden underneath the mech's helm, were now visible. If the medic was that angry…

"Oh no…" the wrecker mumbled. Bulkhead could already see the wrench gripped in Ratchet's servo. Quicker than anyone who never knew Ratchet would've thought possible, the medic reared back and chucked the tool with deadly precision. No one in the base had to look over when they heard the dull thunk and the wrecker's, "Ow!" to know the tool hit its mark.

Not even Optimus, who was busy typing into the computer, "Ratchet, please do not harm the warriors. We need them."

Ratchet scoffed with self satisfaction, glaring at the green warrior who was clutching his helm. "Next time don't throw my medical equipment at the wall!" he hissed through clenched dentae. Turning on his pede, the medic called into the Medical Bay with his servos on his hips, "You're free to go!"

Wheeljack sauntered out, flashing the medic a grin, "Thanks, sunshine!" The medic spluttered, caught so off guard that he stumbled. The wrecker laughed, hurriedly bounding away from Ratchet's wrenches of doom. "So what'd you need me here for, Prime?"

Tension filled the room so suddenly, bots had to turn off their EM sensors. Eyes and optics alike clicked to Optimus, who had paused at his typing. The Prime straightened, abandoning the computer and whatever he was assembling. When he had turned to face everyone in the base and met enraged optics, he hesitated. He was a Prime, he announced the first fallen, announced Decepticon's betrayal, announced Cybertron's fall. He could do this.

Collecting his speaker protocols, he addressed everyone, "It has come to my attention that I need to share information that I had refused to share before." The humans blanked, processing the information. A rough voice hissed from the corner.

"What do you mean refused to share? " His medic, his oldest friend, wheezed. He looked almost betrayed at the choice of words.

"I mean," the Prime hummed, uncertain now about what he was going to say, " I have had the choice to tell you this but chose not to for what Ithought was the greater good." Everyone was silent, the humans looked confused.

"I'm guessing that the greater good was wrong," Jack, the oldest human teenager there, called out. His voice was shaky, not quite scared… he was unsettled.

"Indeed," Optimus almost sunk down into his armor. If he were to get through this, he needed to calm down. He needed to get done with it. "Rescue Bots still exist." the sentence was so blunt, so simple that he could see how some of them had to take a nanoklik to process.

"Primus almighty Optimus!" Ratchet snarled. "You're telling us that there have been more fighting bots this whole time!"

The base then exploded with everyone's disbelief. Everyone's rage.

:"Now now, we don't know if they even can fight,": the yellow scout attempted to amend the team's outcries.

"They can learn!" Arcee spat. Even the normally passive Smokescreen seemed a little betrayed.

"What are Rescue Bots?" an innocent voice chimed in. The voices slowly dwindled down to silence. In the middle of it, there was Raf. His glasses were pushed up, eyes wide and confused.

:"Ah, um. Well…": Bumblebee fumbled with his servos for a minute. Gathering the right words, :"You know your police forces and firefighters?:"the youngest child hummed in confirmation. :"It was kind of like that for us. Before the war… they were-":

"They were thought to be all killed during the beginning of the war! Like, reports came back saying they all died. Turns out, the reports were wrong!" Smokescreen babbled out, unintentionally interrupting the scout.

The humans 'oh'ed. Nodding a little. The others sat down, seemingly satisfied with the answer. But Raf, the ever curious thinker, wasn't done. Speaking up again, "How would they've lived?"

Helms turned to look back at Optimus, who ex-vented. "They had encountered an Energon Eater while out on a mission. To save themselves, they put themselves in statis. Because of this, the Decepticons were not able to detect them. They had stayed in stasis all throughout the war when my message reached them. Then, they arrived on Earth." A few bots shuddered at the mention of the energon sucking pest.

:"Wait, what message?": Bumblebee had known of the Rescue Bot's existence, but not how long they had been around. A few files popped up in his processor, only two times Optimus had sent out something into the stars. One directly after Cybertron fell, the other just a few lunar cycles ago so when… oh. Oh no.

"Back when Cybertron fell," The Prime murmured. There was a hiss of vents.

"Optimus," Ratchet began, voice trembling, "how long have they been here?"

The base was silent. Optimus looked pained, realization coming to him full force.

Steeling himself, "About one Terra cycle ago."

" Prime ," hissed the wrecker. He had been mostly silent, passively watching it all play out. But then, almost a human year of these possible recruits being here Optimus said nothing?!

Arcee, who had been seething most of the whole conversation, actually had to walk away. If she stayed here a klik longer she was going to attack the Prime. Probably gaining war charges for it too.

Jack yelped and hopped off the platform, "Arcee wait!" The two disappeared around the corridor's bend.

"I understand your frustration but please hear me out," Optimus insisted, his servos clenched into fists. Most of the base just scowled at him, "these bots are our salvation if we fail." The main room was void of all sound. Bots stared at each other, then to the Prime. "If Megatron is to destroy us, these bots can continue Cybertron's good legacy. An idea of before the war. If we need assistance, we could go to them for shelter. They are our allies . Innocents who have never seen the terrors of war."

A solemn stillness took over the Autobots' spark. They were frustrated, outraged even. But, if the Prime's words are true… they did not want to be the ones to end a future for Cybertronians.

"I despise asking you this, but please leave them out of this war. It is not theirs in any way. They deserve peace." The Prime's gaze swept over his soldiers, over the humans that had been silent. Speaking up again, "I need you to trust me. Not blindingly, but willingly. If you wish to leave it is understood, and will be allowed."

No one left the base that night.

But whether or not the Rescue Bots were tainted with this war, was not the Autobot's choice. Primus has a weird test of faith.

* * *

Alarms were ringing, sharp and desperate. Red filled the Autobot's base. Bots were scrabbling to gather their charges. Explosions could be heard from the outside.

"Autobots! We will rendezvous at these coordinates! Ratchet, I will bridge you there directly. Tell the bots we are coming! Wheeljack, come back here in about two solar cycles! Wait for the Decepticons to leave and gather everything you can from the rubble!"

The bridge roared to life, each bot that went through arriving at different coordinates in the USA, pulling up the last coordinates Ratchet turned to the Prime. "What about you?!"

"I will stay and make sure they don't follow…" with a grim nod, Ratchet drove through the green vortex. The last thing he heard from behind him before it had closed, was a booming implosion.

Optimus's Life Signal disappeared from the map.

He was now stranded on this island.

Ratchet had to find them.


	28. The Interlude Part 3

Summary:

A crazy wanna-be-evil scientist decides being petty isn't enough.

Griffin Rock was thee place to live.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

If you asked Cody, chasing a giant spider through the city would be an average Saturday night for him. You might think he's crazy, but he would be honest. Which is why, right now he was flying after an above average sized arachnid through city hall. With him, he carried a portable version of Doc. Greene's Shrink-O-Ray.

Now, this all started like any other day on Griffin Rock. Cody had gotten some breakfast, hung out with the Rescue Bots, and went to school. After talking a little with Frankie and arranging a sleepover later tonight, Cody had the pleasure of being rugby tackled by a giant Bumble Bee. The bee was really nice and only wanted a drink from the pond, but still being hit by one of those things is a little startling. Like any other kid in his situation, he called his dad. There was some initial confusion over what Bumble Bee had tackled him ("WHAT DO YOU MEAN BUMBLEBEE TACKLED YOU? ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!") but he had it sorted out.

It didn't take long to figure out that the giant insects were coming from some wanna-be-evil scientist who had stolen Doc Greene's Gigant-O-Ray and made a bunch of different bugs on Griffin Rock giant. The scientist was captured easily enough, but the bugs were still wreaking havoc.

So, here we have Cody, armed with a little taser gun, taking on a spider three times his size. Griffin Rock was the place to live.

Years of experience on his bike has trained him for this moment. Keeping balance in a high speed chase on an actual hover board was as second nature as breathing and your heart beating. The spider took a sharp turn, skittering over a fallen shelf. Without even blinking an eye, Cody had leaned to the side and turned during mid-air. The board he was riding on took such a wide turn the air around him felt almost like a heavy blanket. Not quite suffocating, but familiar. He leaned forward on it, the pressure sending a signal to accelerate forward. With one little nudge, Cody was upright again.

"Cody, what are you doing !"

He winced as Kade's voice blared over the Rescue Team's com system. Kade, his biggest brother, was almost as governing as Mayor Luskey himself. Plus, his big brother doesn't really know how to make a private com so by now almost the whole family, and probably people over the ocean, knew Cody is where he shouldn't be.

Busted! "I'm helping," Cody nonchalantly hummed into the com. He could hear Kade's scoff over the roar of air rushing past him. The spider he was chasing snapped up, crawling up the wall . Cody had to jump back and slam a foot down onto the board. Gripping the sides, his stomach lurched as he went completely vertical. The arthropod jumped off onto a light structure, it swinging under the bug's weight. With a twirl, Cody had to manually switch on the setting that allowed him to go higher without falling.

The spider hissed at him, the pincers (? he'd have to ask Graham or Boulder about that) on its mouth flaring out. Cody, then thought back about what he learned about the arachnid back in school. While some are content to just eat little flies, some spiders eat birds. Being as though there has been a change in size, and it was now gigantic, it probably would try to attack him. Uh oh.

But Cody did not expect the thing to jump at him.

With a startled yelp, he stumbled backwards off of the board. For a second, there was nothing there underneath his feet and he was falling. Everything for one terrible moment was a giant blur. Then, for whatever lucky star he wished upon, his hand met the side. With a terrified scream and a leg-kicking frantic swing, Cody was hanging there with nothing below him.

"Cody? CODY!" frantic voices muddled over the coms. It sounded like everybody heard his scream. He struggled to pull himself up, arms already aching. Maybe if he could just… there! Shifting his hands around, Cody managed to find the pressure sensor. With a smack, the board was flipping. He could feel the exact moment the weight was lifted off of his arms. All the breath rushed out of him as he slammed into the board, legs and arms curling around it.

With a second just to rest and to make sure the team knew he was okay so a police car didn't come barreling down the street with sirens on at full volume; Cody was back into the mission. Below him, the spider was writhing around on its back with long spindly legs flailing everywhere. Like a turtle , Cody noted humorlessly. Of course now after a whole entire chase the thing decides to go easy on him. Frustratingly, Cody didn't even have to muster much effort to snatch the shrink ray out of his pocket.

Just as it had flipped over, trying once again to scamper over broken glass, Cody had aligned the blast perfectly. With a quick flip of a switch bright blue was flown against the arachnid. A snarling hiss echoed throughout the room. It buzzed in his ears, which were popping from the air pressure changing. Bright light filled the room, reflecting off of every substance. The glow was so intense, Cody had to hide his head behind his arm. Then with a questionable gurgle, everything stopped.

Blinking, Cody lifted his arm from his face. The room's contents were scattered across the floor. Ripped pages, broken glass, and… a little spider scuttling away into a corner. He laughed breathlessly, body sinking back onto the board in relief. He tapped the com system on his jacket.

Huffing, "Cody here, spiders are the worst ."

* * *

One thing that Heatwave has learned from his time on Earth is that it is completely different from Cybertron.

There are the obvious reasons, such as soil instead of a firm ground. But the biggest problem he has is the influx of needlessly long creatures. The giraffe for example, has a long neck. The humans say that it for reaching top branches on the trees, but Heatwave knows better. It's just looking for the chance to strike. Then there are elephants. Obviously the trunk is for snatching up prey at long distances. Heatwave would rather fight Unicron himself than let Cody get too close to those beasts.

The absolute worst, are the snakes . Terrible, ugly, evil snakes. They slither despite having no way to move. The despicable creatures squeeze what they fuel on to death . They spit poison, inject poison, and poison what eats them. There is so reason for them to exist, yet they do anyway. Why, Heatwave asks himself, yet he already knows.

Unicron is testing him.

But this crosses the line. Instead of no legs the serpent had hundreds! Its back was armored and had little thin appendages coming from its helm. It was trying to hide under a rock (To take victims by surprise.). The dirt by it was churned up, flung around by the wicked creature.

He was snapped out of his internal monologue by Boulder's excited outburst of, "A millipede! I've never seen one before!" The bulldozer glanced down to his own human companion, optics shining with excitement from seeing what terrible evil was in front of them. Such an evil sight indeed.

He growled under his breath. The vibration of it must've shook the cab; because not soon after Kade was snickering into his palm. The redhead leaned onto the wheel, grinning into empty space. "What's wrong hotshot? Don't like a little buggie?" his companion taunted.

Heatwave's engine rumbled in offence, he himself scoffing. "That thing is less than a foot tall, I'm not afraid of it," He spat. Boulder and Graham turned to give him a look.

Kade just cackled and smacked a hand onto his dashboard, "I never said anything of being afraid!" The human looked so pleased with himself, smirking like he had won… what was the Earth term? The Lottery ? Doesn't matter.

With a snarl, Heatwave snapped open his side door. "Then you take care of it!"

The redhead gave him an incredulous stare. "Are you kidding? That thing would eat me for breakfast!"

Point proven, the fire truck slammed his door shut again. "Exactly!"

"Guys, we need to surprise the millipede and shrink it before it knows we're here!" Graham scolded the two, shaking his head. Then, he had snapped up with a start, "Kade, did you grab it?"

Kade deadpanned, staring at his brother in bewilderment. "Grab what," he spluttered. Heatwave then realized two very terrible things things. One, they had nothing to get it to the right size again; and two, one of them would have to deal with it manually. Good think he knew how to think on the fly.

"Get out."

"What?" Kade gawked at him on the screen, eyebrows furrowed in offence.

"I said get out."

With a hurried wave the redhead opened his side door and hopped out; all the way muttering under his breath. Heatwave didn't even bother turning up his audials to hear.

As leader of a team (A rescue team of all the possibilities) he had learned from millennia of experience. From how to deal with boarders to energon eaters. It was engraved into his processor at this point how to make a plan on a whim. From the side of his optic, he could see a fallen tree. It was all already starting to come together in his mind.

His form twisted in place until he was back into his bipedal state. Turning to the log, he took only a single step forward when someone spoke out. "Heatwave, don't you dare," the owner of the voice almost took on a pleading tone. But he had his plan, and he was going to follow it. He picked it up, turning it around in his servos for a nanoklik. It seemed sturdy enough to crack it over some beast's helm.

Heatwave glanced back to the creature. The thing was still under the rock, short legs twitching every now and again. He straightened his struts. With a weapon in his servos and a plan in processor, he was ready to go off into war.

He lifted the log over his helm; and with a howl he charged. Everything around him was a blur. Then in what it seemed a fraction of a klik, he was at the rock. His kick had sent it flying, little bits of the material flying off into the grass. Heatwave adjusted his grip on the log, ready to smash it down. Only, the thing was gone.

"What the-"

"I got it!" Heatwave snapped around. His optics greeted him the awful sight of the millipede curled up in Boulder's arms. The said mech must've been running after him.

Boulder met his optics stubbornly, "We're taking it back."

The whole trip back was Heatwave glaring and grumbling. His plan didn't work out.

* * *

Blades hated heights. That's something even Primus knew. But what did Blades hate more? Chases in the sky. And probably every single dragonfly he sees from now on.

He and Dani were just going on their weekly sky patrol. They gathered all types of information from it. Humidity, possible future weather events, and bird flight patterns. They also gathered information about the crazy scientist before anyone else.

Now, Blades and his partner had to deal with the consequences of someone that just got too petty. But being petty apparently wasn't enough. The scientist decided he just wanted to be a pain in general. So, instead of just making ground bugs bigger, he made flying ones as well. Blades's specialty. Thanks…

Dani was thrilled at the thought of flying after these giant bugs. (Something about a movie that Blades hadn't seen yet) Blades, however, was not. He hated flying in general, but flying with things that might attack you? Absolutely not.

But as the only flying bot on the team ( Thanks Primus. Always knew I could count on you ) he kind of had to. He couldn't wait until Optimus shared the wonders of triple changing to the whole team. He wanted to be a moped.

But here he was, in the sky chasing some type of dragonfly (why was it named dragon fly?) that probably didn't want to go back to being small.

They had tried to take care of it before, but that just ended with lots of spinning and screaming. So now, Dani was on the ground with the shrink ray and he was in the sky. As bait. He was always the bait. Anyway, his mission was to bring the bug into shooting range so Dani had a clear shot. Worst case scenario was crashing and burning. Bad, but acceptable would be getting shot himself. So as long as there was bad alternate endings (like a Telltale game!) Blades had them in mind. Medic protocols were great.

"Blades, do you have an eye on the fly yet?"

Dani hissed over the coms.

:I haven't seen it since it spun me out!:

And that was true. Ever since the thing had reduced him to pure terror, he flew away and never looked back. And now he had no idea where it would be. It was like one of those moments where someone went looking for a noise in the woods, and the killer popped up and-

Something blared on his sensors.

He just had to jinx it.

He turned around sharply, there was a hiss as the gigantic dragonfly just barely skimmed by his rotors.

:NEVER MIND!:

The dragonfly made a wide turn, giving the copter a good look at its wings. They were completely clear, except for a black dot on the tips. He filed it away, one last moment of calm before it shot at him. With a scream, he rushed off to the side. His whole frame lurched as the dragon (it was less of a fly right now) scratched his side. Blades couldn't tell if the continuous buzzing was from him or the dragon.

The spot where they were planning to blast it was a clearing just on the side of the cliff. Dani claimed she needed to hide behind one of the rocks so the thing wouldn't spot her. Now, Blades was having his doubts.

"You okay?"

:As okay I can with a dragon after me!:

He shut off the coms at Dani's confused "What?"

He was along with the dragon now. Hopefully he'd make it out of this alive.

The dragon seemed to address him with a different aggression. With a churn in his tanks, it was made clear in his processor that the thing was analyzing him. Oh Primus, he just had to get to Dani.

His rotors roared as he twisted around. His sensors blared as it recognized the change in direction. From here he could see how the dragon was moving. The red dot lurched to the left, His back up sensors went off. He sunk mid-flight, the bug raced straight over him. Blades stuttered to a halt as the dragon tilted to stop right in front of him. Its wings, with the black dot, spread out. He vented, and forced himself not to panic… too hard.

But then out of the shadowy forest cover came a bright blue shot. The bug almost folded into itself when it made contact. Something between a hiss and a snarl filled the air. The side of the cliff making it echo. Blades had to turn down his optic settings so he didn't get blinded by the bright blue. A black shadow in the middle of it twisted into shapes that Blades had never seen before.

A gurgle made his whole frame feel funny, almost like jelly. When the blue compressed and imploded outward, a little fly fluttered away. The relief that filled him was almost comical, his vent even made him falter in the air.

"Bang!"

* * *

"Chief, I do not understand."

Chief Burns, his partner, the head of the police force, looked up and gave him one of the most tired looks he has ever received. In his defense, Chase supposed, this was a rather frustrating case.

Ants, according to humans, were one of the most orderly of insects on the planet. So, when an ant queen travels to the middle of the city and its followers start to make a temple around it they did it splendidly. But, they did not follow orders of the law. The queen, and a couple of other workers, were enlarged by the evil scientist from earlier. Now, they had decided to start another colony. Right in the middle of a street. Which, is a violation of multiple sections in the police force's codes. But, they had not done any violence to humans and bots alike. So, there is no need to use a taser or any weapon. But yet Chief had some sort of gun.

"The weapon you have is not needed," he tried to supply. The Chief sighed, and lifted it so he could see.

"This is to shrink them back down Chase."

"But shouldn't we try to get them to peacefully leave first?" Charlie pinched his nose (A curious human gesture that the bots have picked up) and hooked the weapon into his holster.

"If you really think you can get them to leave, you can try."

Now Chase was no queen, but surely if the humans see this much potential in them he could get through. The police car took a step forward, ignoring the look one of the larger ants gave him. Straightening himself, he looked out onto the street.

"Ants of all sizes, you a violating many police codes. You do not have a permit to build on public property. Please cease all activity this instant," Chase advised. However, not a single soul turned to look at him. He made a similar noise to a human clearing their throat. "You are orderly creatures, please listen to orders other than your own."

The queen herself turned to look at him, and for a moment he thought he had done it. However, the ant hissed instead. The lines of ants paused in their work. Some of them dropped the items they were holding and turned. Then, to the police car's displeasure, they all charged towards him.

Turning towards his partner, "Chief Burns it appears I have made a mistake."

It appears ants were not as orderly as humans suspected.

* * *

At the end of the day, each and every bot learned something valuable. Human wildlife, is supposed to stay as small as it is.

From Heatwave, who almost managed to club a peaceful millipede.

To Boulder, who almost tackled Heatwave in his charge.

To Blades, who had fought a dragon. (Not really, but that is how he saw it.)

And finally, Chase, who is definitely not a queen.


	29. The Interlude Part 4

After a whole day on the mission, what everyone just wanted to do was relax.

But then the TV fizzled with static.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

After a whole day on the mission, what everyone wanted to do is just relax. For Heatwave, that would be sparing in the one 'gym' section of the basement. For Chase, it's organizing files and looking over force codes. Blades sits on the couch watching movies and TV shows. And Boulder paints out on the balcony. Kade usually goes on dates. Dani watches some movies with Blades, or is in her room. Charlie cooks something to eat for the family. Graham either studies or actually rests. (Shocking for someone in the Burns family)

What does Cody do? He hangs out with Frankie.

Earlier that day he had invited her over for a sleepover. Despite the trouble during today's mission, the whole thing was still on. Usually on sleepovers, Frankie chooses a movie and brings it over. But today a marathon of the two's favorite show was on TV. So, they kind of had to make Blades move over. (He decided he wanted to see it too)

After raiding Cody's bedroom, they had a collection of pillows and blankets at their disposal. Using their materials, they built a miniature fort for themselves. It was a little lumpy and multi-colored, but it was comfortable. His dad made it a personal goal to cook them the best popcorn they have ever tasted. It took him an hour to get everything right. He even delivered it in one of those huge buckets you can get at theaters. Then Charlie, being the dad he is, made sure they had plenty of napkins for the marathon. Frankie laughed, and pressed play.

And everything was going fine. Until they ran out of popcorn about three hours in. Blades shrugged and picked up the empty container.

"Are you sure you want to leave right now? It's getting good," Frankie had noted. He just laughed a little.

"Just tell me what happened when I get back!" And then he had left the room. Probably going into the kitchen or something.

Looking back, maybe that was a good thing...

* * *

Frankie giggled at the captain's antics on the screen. The light from the TV not quite filling the whole room. Sharp shadows made everything look more dramatic. Light flickered into different colors, shifting from the show's space background to the ship.

On screen were people arguing over rations. Something the people were running out of. The emotion almost seemed real. Even to Cody, who choose to deal with angry citizens with the rescues.

"If we give more to the younger-"

"Then we will starve!"

"No offence, but it seems like a few people could deal to lose a few pounds!"

The two children gave each other an amused glance.

"Are you saying I'm-"

The TV burst with a sudden string of static. Cody jumped in place, head snapping to the screen. Black and white fizzled over until… until something faded in. A contorted person, behind a desk with papers in their hands. Frankie sat up stiffly, eyes wide.

Turning to the boy she murmured in confusion, "What is this?" Cody turned to look at the screen, it was clearing up. He shrugged and focused on the face. Both of them were startled when the bright red alert of 'BREAKING NEWS' lit up the room. The face- a woman- straightened her spine, looking straight into the room with papers clenched in her hands.

"I am live from Nevada, where a hidden military base was found and bombed," the women on the TV spoke calmly. "Or is it more? Terry, tell us what you see from the copter."

The screen was overtaken by another video. The screen was shaking over the roar of rotor blades. "Terry here at the wreckage! Just look at this!" Zooming in, the fuzzy video took in charred walls. Desert winds lapped around, sometimes throwing smoke into the sky. Some fires were still burning. A corner of the rubble seemed to churn fire into different colors. Purple, blue, and green filled the vision.

Then, Terry shifted the camera to focus on the middle of the whole thing.

For a second Cody thought he was seeing things. But then Frankie snatched the remote and shakily pointed it at the screen. Everything stopped.

And on screen was the symbol that Cody knew too well. Charred and smudged. The symbol didn't belong there, didn't belong on the floor instead of one of the bot's bodies.

He stared at Frankie in horror, reaching into his pocket to press on the com he always carries. He shakily lifted it closer to him. "Everybody come to the TV room… please. It's- it's an emergency," he stammered into it. It glowed green, like the fire next to the burnt symbol that didn't belong. Cody could distantly hear crashes and scuffing throughout the firehouse- looks like they took the emergency part seriously.

Dani was the first one through the door, which she slammed open. The sharp smash from that filling the previously quiet room.

"What's wrong?" Dani sounded breathless. Some part in Cody's shocked brain recognized that she probably ran all the way from her room.

"I'll rewind it, we'll wait for everyone to come down," Frankie mumbled to herself, pressing the rewind button on the remote. Blurring over the symbol that didn't belong, the abnormal fire, and the crumbled walls.

It didn't take long for the others to rush in. All the while frantically looking around for any threats in the room. (Some of them almost seemed disappointed from there being nothing but two spooked children, a concerned sister, and a paused TV)

Kade, his older brother, huffed and gave the two a very unimpressed look, "This better be important, I was getting ready for a date!"

"If it's an emergency, that date can wait," Graham, his other brother, briefly scolded. His gaze flickered to the paused television. His eyebrows furrowed as he analyzed the screen. "What's that you got on there?"

Frankie shifted in her seat, hand still clamped on the remote. "It's uh…"

"The emergency," Cody spluttered out. The rest of the spectators turned to look at the TV, where the woman and her papers still sat. Quickly, now that everyone's attention was on the screen, Frankie hit play.

"I am live from Nevada-" He shut out the noise and focused on the other's faces. His own family were intent on discovering what had gotten him and Frankie all rolled up. Each family member seemed to react differently to the visible carnage that Terry had revealed. Cody could see the colored fire without even looking at the screen. Every single color, dancing in their eyes.

He could hear when the bots realized what was on the screen. It was a soft scrape of metal, and when Cody glanced over he could see that their jaws dropped. The bots' eyes, wide with alarm, snapped to each little detail.

"Isn't that…"

Heatwave snapped up sharply. He straightened himself and faced the Chief with a carefully stoic face. Before he could get a word out, Chase spoke up.

"Permission to leave the room, sir?" Cody could tell that his dad had no idea why they were acting the way they were. He gave them a stiff nod. And that is all it took.

The bots scrambled for the door. A couple of them tripped over their own feet in their sudden desperation. Heatwave raced ahead with the rest of them hot on his tail.

And everything else carried on. His family continued to watch the broadcast, looking for something they must've missed. Cody could see their confusion, which was almost as bright as the blaze on the screen.

He jumped when a hand clasped around his arm. He whipped his head around to figure out who had grabbed him. All he saw was Frankie's almost frantic eyes. "We have to go after them!" she hissed beneath Terry (who was still freaking out over the destruction). The two hopped out of their seats together, already racing towards where the bots disappeared.

Cody didn't even remember most of the sprint. All that really mattered to him was that he got where he needed to go. Walls blurred beside him, and the floor flew beneath his feet. If he was correct, the bots would probably be at the communications center. Though, part of him wanted to be wrong.

But life never would be all sunshine and rainbows.

He and Frankie skidded to a halt when they heard the first crash. Cody could hear someone (probably Heatwave) shouting Cybertronian and Earth curses alike. The two didn't even have to look at each other to know they had discovered where the bots had gone. The door (which was Cybertronian sized) was swung open from their rush. Little pieces of drywall that were scattered around suggested whoever opened it used a lot of force to do so.

"Fraggit… PICK UP!" a voice from inside roared. Yup, definitely Heatwave.

Frankie tiptoed to the door frame, stepping over crumbly white powder. She turned to look over her shoulder and motioned Cody to follow. His mind, still a little bit scrambled at the scenario, compiled without a question. The two snuck over to the best of their ability. Though, through all of the cursing and banging that wasn't so difficult. Just peeking over the door frame, the two eagerly took in all of the sights.

Cody really wishes he hadn't.

There was another loud crash as Heatwave slammed his fists into the concil. His snarl of frustration lit up the room more than the blaring red sign on the coms screen. A picture of Optimus flung to the side, the yellow scout popping up next. After a minute, the same red sign popped up again. Heatwave optics narrowed in his rage, fingers digging into the metal and crumpled it up .

"It won't do much good if you break it," Boulder hummed before placing a hand on the firetruck's shoulder. Boulder himself looked worried, but the different worried. The worried you would have if you couldn't find an object. A hopeful kind of worried.

"They didn't give us a warning… that rules out relocation," Chase hissed from the corner. He was pacing holes into the floor. All of his steps in rhythm. It sounded like a clock, ticking down on and on. He kept on muttering under his breath: codes and regulations. He must be trying to find a solution. Trying to find out the problem in the first place would be the most difficult.

But then a sound from the far left sent shivers down Cody's spine. It was unlike something he's ever heard before. It was something… staticy. Little bits and pieces popping in like a normal voice. Straining to look over the other bots in the room, he saw a little bit of white. Maybe if he could just-

Oh. Oh no.

And there was Blades with his head in his hands. His cockpit pulled over his head just so you could barely see it. Rambling under his breath, with bright blue liquid dripping from beneath his hands. He let out the sound again. And with a start, Cody realized he was crying.

The sight didn't belong. Nothing about this seemed right. The bots never cried before. Something was extremely bad.

A hand on his shoulder made him jump. His family all rushed in, questions muddling together. Someone was pulling him away from the room.

Huh.

He never knew robots could cry.

* * *

Later, it was explained that Nevada was where the Autobot Base was stationed at. An Autobot symbol in the middle of a burning wreckage. No one was picking up on their coms. And the fires: burning the color of energon. Every single sign pointed to the Autobot cause being no more. That everyone who was protecting the Earth was gone to the winds.

No one slept that night.

* * *

At three A.M that night, a light lip up on the energon sensor. Chief Charlie Burns, who was sitting at the desk, jumped up at the sharp ring. His tired fingers slid over the buttons on the keypad. At first he had to squint at the screen to see what was going on. Then with a start, he clicked the broadcast button (specialized to send data to the bots quicker than a com call).

Not even minutes later, the entire firehouse was gathered in the basement. The bots shifting pede to pede. Heatwave in particular seemed especially anxious to get moving. When the Chief strolled in, eyes snapped to him like a stretched rubber band. The Chief was dressed in his police uniform, as though this was like any other mission. Meeting the eyes of the bots (who were all distressed on some level) he spoke the best he could. Considering he was running off no sleep, a couple of coffees, and an off brand Red-Bull.

"What's the game plan?"

Heatwave didn't even wait a nanoklik to reply. "It depends, we have no idea who is out there. It could be anything at this point," he started, "Cons would be the most likely-"

"But we cannot forget that there's a chance it could be an Autobot!" Boulder spoke up.

Blades squeezed himself around the others, "It could be the worse Cons we've ever even encountered! It could be-" the copter bot wavered, "it could be Megatro- "

"By himself? Not likely," Chase mumbled from the corner. The heli huffed, mumbling under his breath. "A more likely case is a scout-"

Cody's head snapped up. Even though it was three in the morning and the boy had no sleep didn't stop his inquisitive nature. "Like, Bumblebee'stype of scout?" A couple of the bots winced a bit, but that didn't even compare to Blades's reaction. The poor helicopter cringed, his rotors tucking behind him as he slunk back behind the other bots.

"Technically, yes…" the police car trailed off, giving Heatwave a brief glance. Said firetruck's optics glinted as a plan began to form once again.

Kade raised an eyebrow, "I'm sensing a but?"

"But that would mean they're still looking for us," Heatwave began with a fire in his optics, "if we get the drop on that con, they wouldn't go back to tell that mangy rust covered-"

"Did you guys forget this bot could be friendly ?" The bulldozer, who was previously forgotten, argued.

"If it is friendly, I want to meet them!" Cody chimed in, shooting his very disgruntled family a smile.

Kade scoffed, "You? No. Me however? Count me in!"

"Absolutely n-"

"No! What in the-"

" Kade- "

The voices all mixed together, every other person trying to get heard over the other. Meanwhile, the bots watched the little spat. Boulder had let the others talk away at the possibility of a Decepticon on Griffin Rock, but the energy signature suggested only one bot. There were four bots all together, and if the new bot was friendly…

"What if we brought them along just to check?" Boulder hissed to the firetruck. Heatwave gave him a look, optic ridge raised incredulously.

"If you honestly think we'll be bringing them along…"

* * *

In Heatwave's defense, Boulder has a terrible knack of having good points. But part of him didn't believe the whole 'We can just drop them off!' side of it. Either way, now he had his ever-so-vigilant partner in the driving seat. Hands clamped down on the wheel with a look on his face that made it look like he regretted everything. Then again, this is Kade… could he even regret something?

He had Blades in the sky with Dani and Cody, looking for the number of bots. Plus, any other details could be good in a fight. If it came to that. (Don't tell anybody, but he hoped it would.) The others were driving beside him into the forest with their partners. Hopefully, using both the optics in the air and the energon tracker… they'd be able to track this bot down. Then, they had the bot-power to take a Decepticon scout.

A warning beep came from the tracker. Blades's energon signal was getting close to the other bot's. Gathering the data into a little packet, he messaged it manually to the copter bot. Heatwave could hear the muttered 'Oh great.' over the coms.

:I should be right on top of them, where are they?!:

:Hiding maybe?"

Chase tried to supply,

:Though that isn't an optimal situation if they knew you were there.:

:Are you saying they could know I'm here?!:

Blades's panicked voice hissed over the coms.

:It is possible,:

The police car confirmed. Heatwave held in a huff, turning harshly around a tree. The other two followed his lead.

:Look on the bright side,"

The bulldozer chimed in,

: if they do know you're there they didn't shoot you down!:

:Boulder... I appreciate it, but that doesn't make me feel any better!:

Trees split into different designs about a klik later. The taller, softer ones morphed into spiky and sharp ones. The needles swayed with the rush of dirt from their tires. Within the mile radius, a bot lurked in the shadows. If this was a Con's scout, they were in for a fight for a lifetime. (Heatwave told himself this wasn't about revenge, but c'mon. You had to see what this is about.)

But then Dani gasped over the coms.

"Right there! Look at 'em!"

Quickly, Heatwave pulled up the energon tracker onto his main HUD. He turned sharply, tires digging into mud and grass. Kicking it up onto the trees. Driving right towards where Blades was stationed, his engine roared as he accelerated. Ignoring Chase's mumbling of a speed limit and Boulder's unhappy comments about the grass.

:What do they look like?:

The firetruck demanded over the twists and turns.

:Um! One bot, they look to have a red and white paint job… uh. OH! They just transformed and are heading your way!:

Another glance to the tracker proved the statement. One blinking red dot moving towards the groop, and showing no signs of stopping. He tightened the seat belt around Kade before slamming on his brakes. Using the momentum to twist and transform mid-motion. The fancy move awarded him with two pedes on the ground and one safe human. (Though he was looking a little green)

" Never do that again," Kade groaned, clutching both his torso and his head. His windshield slid down as he dent down onto one knee. Holding out his servo as the redhead climbed out. The others transformed around him, Blades landing a little ways off before doing so. Each and every single one of them taking great care to make sure their charges were safely out.

'Clearing' his throat, "Now, you guys hide over in the trees. If this is a con, you simply run away. If it is friendly, we might consider letting you guys chat. Understand?" Heatwave was met with firm nods. The Chief ushered everyone away under one of the droopy spiked trees. Using the shadows to cover them. If things went bad, it would be difficult for the attacker to see them, but easy for them to get away.

"The bot's coming!" He didn't need to be told twice, he could already hear the roaring engine of a bot speeding their way through. Heatwave exchanged glances with his teammates. Chase's optics held a fierce determination. Blades had uncertainty, but courage as well. An Boulder's, who had hope and valor. Each and every bot here was ready to fight, even though some of them might not have battle training or any sense of aggression. Heatwave turned to the dark woods with a strong feeling of fortitude in his spark. If this bot made the terrible decision to make them an enemy, you bet they were going to fight back as boldly as any other soldier.

And he knew Optimus would be proud .

The flash of white among the trees almost made it easy to pick up where they were coming from. Maybe they weren't a threat after all. Or, they were idiotic enough to believe they didn't see them. The vehicle skid to a halt just beyond the tree line, dust flying out of the shadows. The silence that filled the air was heavy. Both sides sizing each other up the best they could. Then, the familiar sound of a transformation was soon to follow. Strange enough, the sound went on longer than normal. As though the bot was transforming twice . Bright blue optics met Heatwave's own. In them he could see the distrust, the curiosity, and the aggression . The aggression of a bot that has been through so much, they would fist-fight over the smallest of scraps.

Then the bot took a few steps forwards. Their plating was a mix of white and a red-orange. A compressed chassis with large helm ornaments that almost looked like optic ridges. And, of course, large blades where hands should be . In one moment of clarity, Heatwave realized that the sound of transformation wasn't elongated at all. The bot had transformed twice: simply different body parts. He swallowed the own apprehension he felt.

The bot's optics flicked to each bot before deciding to land on Heatwave's. For a moment there was silence. But then the bot began to speak, "What're your designations-"

A familiar stubbornness filled his frame. Designations? The bot wanted designations? He'll give them designations !

Interrupting the bot mid-sentence Heatwave snarled, "We are Rescue Bots! And we will never let you , or any other Con take our home!" Taking a step forward for emphasis, he met the bot's optics with his own. Said bot let out an unimpressed huff, sparking a flare of anger in the firetruck. He grit his dentae. This mech wasn't taking him seriously! He'll show them not to underestimate-

"That's nice, but I am no Decepticon ," the mech spat out the last word. Letting his blades transform back into servos. "Chief Autobot medical officer Ratchet, I'd say it was nice to meet you but then I'd be lying. You're the Rescue Bots if I am correct? I believe I asked for your designations before this mech-" he waved a servo at the affronted Heatwave "-had the gull to interrupt me?" Heatwave spluttered over his own words. Part of him wanted to be overjoyed that this mech was an Autobot, proof that the Rescue Bots aren't totally alone on Earth. But the other part of him wanted to be angry about the fact that Autobots were alive and didn't even contact them. Though it seemed like the others didn't share his concern.

Boulder stepped forward with a servo out and a smile. Ratchet paused for a second before shaking it with his own. "Yeah! My name's Boulder!" The bulldozer stepped back.

Chase took his place, shaking Ratchet's servo. "Chase."

Blades had began to walk away to where the humans were hidden. Turning over to call over his shoulder with a wave, "Mine's Blades!"

Then the mech's optics landed on him. Well, this was the hill he'd die on (a morbid human saying. Oh Primus he was picking those up now too) "My name's Heatwave. I'm the leader of Sigma 17, or the bots you can see here." He shook Ratchet's servo firmly before taking a step back.

"Figured you'd be in some state of authority," the mech shrugged briefly. "How you stepped forward towards an armed mech just screams 'bravery'."

Heatwave opened his mouth to defend himself-

"Hello!"

Only to be stopped by an enthusiastic Burns family. They all trotted out from behind the tree with Blades in the lead. The helicopter was murmuring something to the family, and a couple of them nodded.

"Humans?!" Heatwave jolted in place ( not because he was scared ) and whipped around to face a distraught Ratchet. The mech was staring at the family with a look that was almost comically startled. Wide optics flickering over every single one in the group, servos up as though that would somehow help. Ratchet took a quick step back when the Chief took one step forward.

"Chief Charlie Burns, it's nice to meet you sir," the Chief announced in his official 'officer' voice. The other Burns stepped forwards as well, giving the medic a smile (or in Kade's case, a smirk). "These good people beside me are my family. Kade, Dani, Graham, and Cody," he motioned to each of the family members on their names.

Ratchet narrowed his optics at the youngest Burns, "Could you possibly tell me why you brought a child out here with you?"

Cody just laughed, smiling up at the medic with a face you just couldn't stay mad at (Trust him, Heatwave tried) and giggled out, "That's a long story! How about you just come back with us to the Firehouse?"

Ratchet gave Heatwave a confused look. "Our base," the firetruck hummed. The medic 'ah'ed. Twisting his form once again until instead of a mech, there was an ambulance in the middle of the field.

"Then I guess I'll just follow your lead,"

The youngest Burns 'ooh'ed before a large grin split his face. "An ambulance , noble!"

* * *

The ride back was longer than normal. Boulder decided a little tour wouldn't hurt and guided the new mech through the town. A couple civilians glanced over, but didn't seem to mind much. They even drove a little towards Doc Greene's lab, admiring the view of the building. Though after a few minutes, Ratchet seemed as uninterested as you could possibly be. They wrapped it up and arrived back to the base.

When they had brought the medic down to their energon storage to get the mech some fuel, his optics almost popped out of his helm. Gawking at the supply with his jaw dropped. Stunned, he took the cube without hesitation. Taking a while to rest and fuel up. Answering questions with short and blunt statements. Like how he was holding up, and how he was feeling.

But then Chase got curious. And one question was all it took.

"What happened back on the Autobot base?" the police car had questioned innocently. Genuine concern in his optics. That one question piqued the other's interest, bots and humans alike leaning in.

Ratchet huffed at the attention, gripping his cube tighter. "What do you think happened? We were attacked by Decepticons!" Giving the police car a dirty look, the medic took a quick sip out of the cube.

Chase nodded, "Indeed, but we were given no message about an attack. Or even relocation. What happened ?"

"We didn't have the time," Ratchet began with contempt, "we were…" the medic trailed off, "too busy with a war ship being dropped on our helms."

"That sudden of an attack?"

"Yes, it was-"

"Ratchet, prepare to bridge everyone out of here!"

The bots in the base paused, optics wide at the Prime's announcement. Ratchet stared for a second in alarm before he blurted, "We're abandoning the base?!"

The Prime looked over his shoulder at his medic. "The base is lost, we must disperse and rendezvous at a new location."

"But shouldn't we stick together?" Jack muttered in shock.

"All for one and one for all?" Miko chimed in with a pleading tone.

The Prime sighed, "We have more of a chance to all get there in one piece if they must look for us!"

"Where are we going?" Raf hissed out in a small panicky voice.

Ratchet could see the conflicting emotions on the Prime's face. The face that used to be so kind, but was hardened in war. The face that was expected to be a leader and make the hardest decisions.

Optimus straightened himself, optics breezing over his soldiers. Pausing once at one side of the room, and then on Ratchet. Optic ridges furrowing, "Griffin Rock. I'll be sending you the coordinates now."

"Wha-"

A data burst popped up on his screen, showing direct latitude and longitude. The rendezvous was most likely an island off of the human state of Maine. Ratchet internally huffed. If he had to drive all the way through that water, Optimus was lucky if the Decepticons killed him first!

Alarms clicked on, final warnings to the carnage that was to come. Bots scrabbled to gather their charges, holding them close. Ratchet sharply turned to the concil, servos flying over buttons and switches. Pulling up one location, somewhere in the Midwest of this country, Ratchet tugged the lever down. The bridge roared to life, a vortex of greens and blues shining all around the base. The base they were abandoning…

"Bumblebee, you will go first." The scout beeped in acknowledgement and the sound of a transformation out-shined the roar of the bridge. Tires screeched as the yellow scout sped out of the base. Hissing through grit dentae as he repeated the process, Ratchet found another location. Once again pulling the lever down and listening to vehicles speed out. His audials missed hushed goodbyes and tearful glances. Missed Optimus ordering Wheeljack to come look at the wreckage later. Missed the rumbles and crashes from outside the walls. The process was almost robotic, repeating the same things over and over-

"Old friend, it is your turn to go."

Ratchet almost jumped, wearily peering over at the Prime. Some far part in his processor noted that Optimus looked tired. Defeated almost. Then the Prime stepped forward, selecting the very coordinates that he had sent everyone. The rendezvous spot. Looks like the medic was already ahead of everyone.

"I will bridge you there directly. You must find the Rescue Bots and tell them we are coming," Optimus whispered. Optics abandoning their search of the screen to meet Ratchet's.

The medic almost nodded before it clicked, "What about you ?"

The Prime vented heavily, "I will ensure the Decepticons can not follow," he breathed. Staring at a wall as it shook and crumbled. Ratchet took a few hurried steps toward the bridge. He paused just before he walked through, staring into the portal. When he crossed it, he would be leaving everything from before behind. An old friend, a base, a home…

He grit his dentae and clenched his servoes, "I…" he murmured into the chaos, "never imagined it would end like this."

Gathering his courage, he took the final steps out of the base. The last thing he heard from behind him before it had closed, was a booming implosion. 

"Ratchet?"

The mech jumped in his plating, whipping around to stare at yellow optics. Not the optics of his leader, his friends, or his teammates. Just the optics of a young stranger who had no idea how much the Autobots were struggling.

The mech, who was named Chase, seemed almost apologetic. Optics uncertain before uttering, "I… apologize if I brought up bad mem-"

Ratchet scoffed mid-sentence, waving the mech off with a servo. "No worries."

The silence that filled after was uncomfortable. He must've stared off longer than he expected, because all of these bots and humans in this room seemed almost afraid to ask another question. Fine then, he'd answer one he already knew they were wondering.

"This is an Autobot rendezvous point now. The others will arrive soon," he hummed nonchalantly as he took another sip of energon. The others gawked for a second, before a glimmer of hope split their faces. Primus, he wished he had their same attitude.

"As in the others got out…?"

Ratchet coughed, "Most of them." The medic had to watch that little flicker get washed away.

"Is Bumblebee okay?" the Helicopter bot (who Ratchet had first thought was a Decepticon) blurted out. Afterwards, the bot looked a little sheepish, but determined to get an answer.

Ratchet considered the question slowly, swirling his cube. Giving the bot a suspicious glance. Last time he checked, no one but Optimus even knew these bots existed. And they didn't know who he was right off the bat, so unless-

Oh.

Oh when that mech got here he was in for a stern talking to.

"Bumblebee was the first to leave," The bot- Blades- sighed in relief, muttering a little 'Thank Primus' into his servos. The medic downed the last of the energon and placed the empty cube on a counter. Nodding to the green mech who picked it up to dispose of it.

"So what I understand, the whole of Team Prime is coming… here ?" The oldest human questioned.

Ratchet nodded before turning on his heel. "Whether you like it or not. They're coming. And you lot better be ready for their arrival." Marching right out of the door and leaving the rest of them to question his answers, the medic closed the door behind him. Sparing a glance at the sparkbeat tracker on his arm. Everyone seemed steady except-

Except for Optimus, Wheeljack and Smokescreen. Optimus he could understand, facing off an entire warship didn't exactly give you the best odds. Prime or not. But Smokescreen and Wheeljack?

He vented out into the dark hallway. Primus had a cruel way of testing his people. But Ratchet didn't know how much longer he could stand it.

And- worst of all- he didn't know if these innocent bystanders could take it at all.

Either way, he guesses they'll find out...


	30. The Three Musketeers

Team Prime has split up.

But like two ends of a magnet, they will always come together.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Chapter Management Edit Chapter

Chapter 1: The Three Musketeers

Chapter Text

**Starting Back Up Check…**

**Spark: **ONLINE

**Processor:** ONLINE

**Fuel Levels:** LOW

**Charge Levels:** HIGH

**Protocols:** ONLINE

**Rebooting….**

**Rebooting….**

**Rebootin-**

The Prime's optics flickered online. His processor lumbered behind; sensing pain and automatically turning receptors down. Warnings popped up in his vision. Purposefully set in the center so he wouldn't ignore them. Small beeps that indicated low energon levels filled his mind. Tired of the sound, the Prime shoved them away. His lowered pain receptors still ached. It was bothersome, but he could not lower them any further.

He briefly checked over the damage report he received. He had a few good gashes to his chassis- but nothing life threatening if they were treated. Though, seeing as though he sent his only medic to an island in Maine, he wasn't getting treated anytime soon.

Optimus tried moving his limbs. Ignoring the flare on his receptors, he attempted to turn his arm. Only, the creak that came from the motion was deafening. It echoed all around him, but that couldn't drown out the noise of another frame jumping. Oh, so he wasn't alone.

The other bot stumbled over their feet: clumsily, Optimus noted. He couldn't muster the effort to transform his servos. After all, who knows how long the bot had been there. Or, Optimus might've been captured. At this point, he didn't care. His bots were safely away, and he didn't even know their locations. He would be useless for knowledge.

But then his optics picked up a mainly white paint job. No Decepticons he knew of even touched white…

The bot sprinted over. Pedes tripping over rocks (Oh, they were still on the ground?) as they made their way over. Then the bot exclaimed, "You're awake!"

Optimus recognized that voice…

Why was Smokescreen here with him?!

"What're you…" The Prime murmured, voice falling short. The speedster crouched down, and gently pushed him back down.

"You're damaged, just stay there," Smokescreen urged. The concern was foreign to the mech's voice.

"Why are you here ?" Optimus hissed through his dentae. Trying to move up again, only to be stopped by the mech's servo.

The speedster avoided the Prime's optics. A nervous smile on his face. "I came back," Optimus gave him a look, "I don't know why! I just did! But when I came back the base was all destroyed. Fire everywhere. I'm pretty sure some human helicopters were there too…" The speedster hummed for a bit, recollecting his memories. "Oh yeah! You were in the wreckage so I dragged you here. I think you've been out for two solar cycles..?"

The Prime let out an exasperated sigh. Two cycles was a long time. Especially since Smokescreen could've used that time to go to the rendezvous.

But the mech wasn't done, "Since I found you there, I was thinking of going out and looking for more? If you survived, who knows what else did!" Smokescreen's optics glinted in the low light. They showed his hope with an almost childish glimmer.

Optimus let his helm lie back on the wall. Considering, if it had been two cycles the Decepticons were most likely gone. Venting, "If you see anyone, you retreat. Understood?"

Smokescreen grinned with victory.

* * *

Retreat, yeah he wasn't doing that. He stepped over another piece of crumpled metal. Everything here was the Autobot's. If anyone here was trying to take it, he would make them regret it!

The destroyed remnants of the base around him sent a little shiver through his struts. Not even three solar cycles ago, he and Miko were arguing over what Earth movie had the better cast...

Lifting a giant piece of debris, he could see the destroyed communications array. Huffing, he let it drop again. The crash filled the silence. But then there was a different crash. He whipped around towards the noise. His new battle protocols roaring to life. He made a dive under the crumbled sheet of metal. Just in time to witness another mech drag something out into view.

Smokescreen hissed under his breath. The item seemed to be pretty large. Too large for the mech to carry normally. One side was more outward, like a-

The Forge!

He quickly transformed his servos into blasters. The crumpled material around him would be able to hide him for however long he wanted. In fact, he could just ignore the bot and retreat, like Optimus said.

But, he was Smokescreen . So, he darted out and forward, prepared to send whoever this bot was back to their master. Whatever cover he had was blown by the loud crunch of a metal bar underneath his pede. The mech, startled, turned sharply to look at him. Hesitating for just a second, the speedster raised his blasters.

Only to be met with a scoff, "C'mon kid, this thing won't lift itself!" The gruff voice of Wheeljack complained. Tugging on the hammer for emphasis. The Forge was digging into the ground and with all of the debris it must be hard to get out. It kept getting caught on small pieces of metal. It must be really frustrating...

Especially with the look on the wrecker's face. Smokescreen jumped forward with his newly transformed servos. Bending down to take the other end of the hammer. He had to try three times before successfully lifting it. By the time he had it on his shoulder (ow.) almost five kliks had passed. Smokescreen jolted when Wheeljack suddenly started to march forward. Stumbling a little, he followed in silence.

He carefully stepped over more metal as he walked. Depressingly, he could even recognize small bits and pieces of the wreckage. He already missed the berths. He let himself dive into the memories of the base. Of messing around with the kids. Of messing with Bee and Ratchet. Messing around in general.

He was ripped away from these memories when the wrecker in front of him stopped with no warning. The speedster stumbled to make sure the hammer stayed on his shoulder. "You can just drop it here," The wrecker called out. Smokescreen huffed and shuffled the hammer's head off of his shoulder. Grunting as it fell into his servos. He and the wrecker bent down to lay it on the ground. After making sure it was stable, the speedster straightened himself and looked around.

He didn't even notice how far they had walked. They were behind another one of those big rock structures near the base. He could see a little searing from where the bomb must've brushed. And right next to that was- OH! How did he not notice that ship?!

It was damaged. There were gashes all over it, and the lifting gear was crumpled. It wouldn't take off, but if it were fixed they could easily get to the rendezvous point! But how would they fix it?

Optimus would know. Speaking of which…

"Hey! We need to go back," Smokescreen exclaimed out of the blue. His outburst made the wrecker raise an optic ridge.

"For what?"

"Well, Optimus is-"

"Prime?!"

* * *

In hindsight, maybe they should've brought the Jackhammer a little closer. It's not like Optimus couldn't walk, but carrying him would just be easier on the big lug. But how was he supposed to know the Prime would weigh a ton?!

The two were carrying the Prime with his arms around his shoulders. Lugging him over debris was a look more difficult than they had bargained for. Unfortunately, if the Prime tried to stand on his own two pedes, he would be too high to carry. So to stop the pain, they had to quite literally drag him.

And Wheeljack was tired of it about a klik in.

Though by the time they were in the range of sight of the Jackhammer, they had to take a break. It took everything in his power not to just grab Optimus by his pedes and drag him across the ground to get there.

And considering how impulsive he is, Wheeljack did a very good job at controlling himself.

When they had arrived, Wheeljack unceremoniously let the Prime drop. (The kid gave him a look)

He jogged to his ship, running his servos over the scratches and dents those 'Cons put in. Oh he'd make them pay… this would take some miracle to fix her.

And in some ways, a miracle is what he got.

* * *

The Rescue Team seemed to be all holding their breath. Five days had passed since the Autobot medic Ratchet had arrived and announced that the rest of Team Prime were coming. But since then, nothing had popped up. The energon sensor had been empty. Doc Greene's invention that sends a signal when a plane flies overhead; it had nothing. And that sent everyone on edge. Especially the Burns family, who had less to find the bots with.

Ratchet didn't make things any better. The family offered him a spare room in the bunker with the med-berth (which was cleaned thoroughly). The medic didn't have the best attitude, and seemed to somehow always get on Heatwave's nerves. Though unlike some others, he shot back insults just as good.

So combined with the tense relations, and nothing on the sensors; they were on the tip of their toes.

One day, the Burns and the bots were over at Doc Greene's lab checking over the air sensor. When they were looking away, about to leave, the sensor suddenly chirped. Everyone jumped and whipped around to look at the machine. As soon as they saw the red dot, they were already rolling out.

It didn't even take them five minutes. Even Chase, who normally watches his speed, raced with the rest of them. Honestly, it was impressive none of them crashed.

Skidding to a halt, Ratchet transformed just beyond the meadow. According to the coordinates the ship was hovering around here. The others stopped just behind him. The humans were talking over their com or something- he didn't really care. Right now, he was searching the skies. He knew some ships has cloaking technology- but that didn't stop the warping of light. If he could just find it-

There it was.

Ratchet tried to see how big the warp was, when the warp was suddenly bigger. He could feel the air from the ship (it must have good venting) getting closer. Hissing over his shoulder, "Get back!"

The others scrambled, backing up behind the hill. The meadow was encased by hills and trees. Thick enough where they wouldn't be seen by civilians. They only had so much room so if this ship was too big…

The rush of air almost threw them back. Ratchet had to dig his pedes into the ground to stop himself from tumbling. Dust flew everywhere, and he could see the impact from landing gear. The others murmured with concern behind him.

The warp flickered for a moment, dark steel popping up in front of the trees. Then with a hiss, the cloak shut off. Ratchet invented hard. It looked like the Jackhammer… but it was larger. And (don't tell Wheeljack) better.

When the door hissed, all of them jumped. Ratchet transformed his blades, ready for anything to come out of that ship.

Well what he thought anything .

The door slowly opened to show an injured Prime. His face was determined as he took a shaky step forward. He bent down hard, and quickly took another step. Ratchet's medic protocols acknowledged a limp. Along with many slashes to the chassis and limbs. After a whole medical scan, Ratchet recognized the very large and obvious tool the Prime was holding. Putting two and two together… they must've used The Forge to change the ship. But why would they do that when Optimus was in such poor condition?!

He lunged forward, grabbing the Prime's arm and throwing it over his shoulder. Optimus didn't even resist- they've done this so many times it was probably integrated into their programming. The two lurched together, the Prime's knees giving out.

"Hello again old friend-" Optimus began slowly.

"OH NO DON'T YOU 'old friend' ME," Ratchet snapped, "I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU!"

He quickly glanced over his shoulder. Smokescreen and Wheeljack stepped out next and stared at the bots in the meadow. Smokescreen looked fine, but Wheeljack looked scuffed up. A bit of concern lit up his spark. Hopefully it wasn't anything serious- he and Optimus lurched again.

Venting in sharply, "OUT OF ALL THE SCRAP-BRAIND IDEAS YOU'VE HAD," the two shakily made it over to the other bots, "DECIDING TO FIGHT A WHOLE WARSHIP HAS TO JUST TAKE IT ALL ," making sure Optimus gently met the ground, Ratchet turned to glare at the Prime, "OPTIMUS KINDLY TELL ME WHAT THE FRA- "

A servo slapped over his mouth. Ratchet's whole frame stiffened with rage. He was going to kill somebot. His helm snapped over to be met with the faceplates of a cheeky wrecker. "Careful Sunshine , there's humans here," Wheeljack drawled out. Spluttering, Ratchet grabbed the wreckers arm and tugged it away. Glaring daggers into the grinning Wheeljack's face.

He turned sharply to other bots, who were looking a little frightened, "This is Optimus Prime the reckless idiot, Smokescreen the not-yet-scrapped-kid, and Wheeljack the soon-to-be-wrecked wrecker!" Ratchet snarled, glaring at the smug Wheeljack.

Boulder took a step forward, smiling nervously, "Let's not do anything we regret now…"

"Oh I won't regret it, I'll enjoy it !"

"You'll miss me not even a nanoklik after," Wheeljack hummed sweetly.

"Okay as fun as this is, we might need to get them back before they kill each other," Kade whispered to his partner, who nodded in agreement.

"Okay… welcome to Griffin Rock!"


	31. The B Brothers

He can remember it with almost striking clarity.

The ruins of all the ships that had been shot down, all of them in one place. Each and every one of them the same as the next. Only differing by color and designations. Tau Beta 4's red striped ship had a cavern through the middle. The metal curled outward, the edges still aflame from where the blast had struck. Bulkhead could remember how the bodies had been found on nearly the other side of the wreckage site, most likely thrown from their ship when attacked. It was unclear whether or not they had died instantly, except one bot. The poor femme had twisted limbs and a crushed spark chamber. There was a trail of energon leading away from the others, suggesting that she had lived and tried to crawl to safety.

She didn't make it, only getting a few pedesteps away.

He could remember the one bot who was in charge of striking off the name list of who had died. The bot was strangely stoic, though behavior modifiers were not uncommon at the beginning. Striking off name by name, even the ones who had no bodies to show for it.

Unfortunately, some pods were outside Cybertron's gravitational pull when they were attacked, so any missing bots were presumed dead. No one was willing to go out into the stars to look for them. They were simply left to their tombs. The very ships they swore to help others in.

He could remember taking the list from the bot with shaking servos. Scrolling through countless names before seeing one that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Boulder was one of them. His very own brother, who had a spark purer than gold, lost to the stars.

Bulkhead had sworn to protect him. From anything that would've dared harm him. But he had failed. He always did. He had failed to keep both of his brothers safe. One from his own self, the other from the first's faction.

That was when the memory stopped, and when his own processor took over. Changing the brightened roads to black. Corners of his vision morphing into horrible shapes. Tearing away the memory into little pieces and changing it into something even worse.

Heavy pedes filled the dark vision, echoing eerily from unseen walls. Bulkhead could tell who it was without even looking over. He knew how his own walked. Or at least he used to, before the mech had… left.

"You killed him," the former-wrecker murmured, his voice barely traveling. The steps paused, as if considering his words. It was then that it was almost painfully clear that this was just a figment of his own imagination. The real mech wouldn't even pause, if he was still alive.

That jolted his processor. Breakdown was dead, none of this would be possible. But yet, these visions continued to haunt him. Primus he was tired of this.

Both of his brothers were dead, he was alone.

* * *

Miko snapped awake, almost jumping out of the seat. The seat belt, always on in case the two needed to bolt away, stopped her from going far. Her vision was still hazy from just waking up. It was an unpleasant sensation, being woken so suddenly.

She yawned and rubbed her eyes, wiping away a small tear. Ugh, she was hungry. She straightened herself in the seat, blearily looking around. Everything seemed okay, so why had she been awakened?

Then Bulkhead's frame rumbled a bit. Not enough to really shake the cab, but enough for it to be noticeable. Miko squinted at the dark screen, which normally lit up when the bot was awake. The bot shook again. Blinking, the girl realized that maybe the Autobots had dreams like them?

Huffing, she slapped the wrecker's dashboard. "Hey, wake up big guy!" she sing-songed. Kicking her feet while the systems started up. Funny enough, the screen displayed a little loading avatar, twirling around while the bot caught up to reality. Bulkhead came to with a lurch and a groan.

"Were you dreaming?" Miko hummed innocently.

The bot, still in the process of waking up, grumbled, "Wha… what?"

Miko rolled her eyes and tapped the wrecker's dashboard again, "You weren't awake, but you were still moving. Do you dream like us?"

Bulkhead was silent for a moment, but then, "Well, less of dreaming and more of processing memories…"

Miko beamed and grinned, "Awesome! What were you dreaming about?"  
The cab stilled, the normal rumble of the engine running stalled for a moment. The atmosphere changed sharply. It was almost like when the bots had to deal with a super dangerous could-possibly-end-the-world type of emergency. But this was no emergency, just a little question.

"Nothing," the response was blunt, definitely not putting her in a place to question why. In fact, when she had opened her mouth to say something, the engine started up. Bulkhead rolled forward silently, turning back onto the highway. The hologram that they had initiated flickered to life, just a shadow figure.

Both of them were silent

* * *

They had snuck onto a ship that was supposedly heading to Griffin Rock. It was a miracle they hadn't been found, and they had to hustle to get past the final supplies check. If the employees saw them, they didn't show it.

It was actually really difficult to find the rendezvous point. The specific coordinates had them stop somewhere in the forest. With birds chirping overhead Miko climbed out of his door, claiming she needed to stretch her legs.

So why not, Bulkhead figured, he could transform too. He had to duck his head under some of the branches, but otherwise it felt good to use his legs instead of his wheels. Almost five solar cycles- no six, had passed since the base went down. If the others had got there, they should be here or somewhere close.

He briefly checked over his energon tracker- the only thing that could tell him of another bot's signature- and expected multiple bots nearby. However, he was met with a scary sight. Yes, there were bots nearby but they were at a distance. Their formation seemed to be one that was trying to block him in, and one bot was heading towards him. And without thinking, he ushered Miko into the shadows of the trees, ignoring her rushed questions. Distantly, his audials picked up the whir of rotor blades.

A flying bot, and a wall of bots. Yup, this must be some Decepticon trick. If he could shoot down this one bot though…

He transformed his servo just as the bot crossed over the tree line. It was a helicopter, but unlike any other drone Bulkhead's ever seen. The bot had paint that looked to be white and… some warm color that the wrecker couldn't make out. Either way, the bot was still a possible threat. And without anyone to back him up if things got ugly, his protocols called for termination. No matter how terrible it may be, if it meant the survival of him and Miko, terrible he would take.

He aligned the shot carefully, powering it up. Waiting for just the moment where the bot paused for a bit-

There!

He let the shot go, only for the bot to swerve sharply. It must've saw it coming. Bulkhead hissed under his breath, letting out a barrage of shots instead.

His vision was suddenly overtaken by a large popup. The energon tracker… the wall of bots were coming in fast.

"Scrap!" he snarled as he ducked back under the branches. Holding out a single servo for Miko to climb into, he transformed and prepared to head off into the darkness. His engine revving hard. Maybe if he was fast enough-

" BULKHEAD, STAND DOWN!" a loud commanding voice spat out of the shadows. The wrecker skid to a shocked halt. There was no mistaking that voice…

Multiple vehicles shot out of the trees, in front there was the signature blue and red color scheme. The other bots around him transformed quickly, kicking up dirt with their pedes and looking almost scared. Optics wide, platting pulled in tight, but a look of anger on their faceplates. And then there was Ratchet-

Ratchet?!

Oh scrap he messed up…

The Prime transformed quickly, taking two rushed steps forward, "He's an ally!" It was at that moment that Bulkhead realized the Prime was injured. There was hastily welded cybernalm scraps all over the Prime's body. Crumbled and dirty. It would need to be buffed down later and repainted, but the scraps suggested he was injured recently.

Miko pushed his door open and jumped out before Bulkhead could stop her. Running forward to the new bots (Who looked shocked at her sudden appearance) and beaming. "Whoah! You guys look awesome! How you doing OP?"

Bulkhead spluttered and transformed, taking a single step forward. "Miko!" he agonized out loud.

Overhead, the helicopter spun and landed roughly. There was a skid mark on it's side, suggesting that one of his random shots had hit its target. Though, Bulkhead didn't know whether or not this was a good thing.

Another human hopped out of the vehicle. It was a female, like Miko. Dressed in some sort of flight suit, looking frazzled. She stumbled for a bit on the ground before she caught her footing and glared up at the wrecker. The helicopter transformed and clutched its side where the black mark was still visible.

Bulkhead's optics flew to the very obvious Rescue Bot Insignia on the bot's chest and felt a strange feeling of guilt. Of course, there was always guilt over almost shooting down an ally, but this bot looked strangely familiar. And the other two new bots too…

Ratchet hissed, "You decided to shoot before even seeing an insignia?!"

Bulkhead gawked for a minute, "I didn't know there were any ally fliers!"

Off to the side, the Prime sighed. Sparing a glance to the Rescue Bots and their partners. He turned on his pede gesturing a servo to the green mech, "Everyone, this is Bulkhead. Please do not hold his aggression personally."

Blades huffed under his breath.

* * *

When the team and the others rushed out, Boulder didn't worry. Especially when they said something about a bot. Figuring that since it's just another bot, he could tidy up around the bunker. Don't tell the others, but he actually kind of enjoyed cleaning the place up. Especially when he got to water the plants or organise some of the human's items.

He usually played music whenever he did this. Mixing in some from Cybertron and some from Earth put a new spin on things. His favorite thing to do was to compare how the two differed. It didn't matter if no one else was as interested as him, as long as he enjoyed it he was happy.

It took up a lot more time than he realized, because by time he was finished he got a message from the team. Claiming there was another Autobot coming back to the base. A happy little grin split his face. He had everything cleaned up all nice for the new bot!

He just couldn't wait to meet them!

* * *

The awkwardness of the air just wouldn't go away. Bulkhead figured almost shooting someone down would do that. Even though he had apologised…

They were bringing him down into some type of basement. The elevator was large but it barely fit every bot on there. He had to squeeze in next to the mech named Heatwave, who still was a little mad at him.

The bunker, however, didn't disappoint. Bulkhead took a step forward and took it all in. Tall walls, there seemed to be multiple rooms, and there was a green bot in the corner. He couldn't make out the mech's face when turned around. Though it seemed like the mech heard them come down. The bot started to turn around, body language suggesting that they were happy about something. Bulkhead only hoped that mech wouldn't be as mad as the others. Maybe they'll be-

A familiar green face stared at him with golden optics.

Oh Primus above…

That was…

"Boulder…?" His voice came out weaker than he expected it to. Wavering for only a nanoklik. The mech in front of him was different than he had remembered, he probably took an Earth form. His frame hadn't changed much, but now he had extra pieces. For example, his arms seemed to be covered in some sort of tread, and his paint was green and opaque.

His brother started at his voice, coming to with just a jolt that Bulkhead rushed forward. Boulder met him a few steps ahead. Their embrace was tearful, sobs mixing into laughter.

Bulkhead almost couldn't believe it. He had convinced himself that his brother was dead, long gone, only to have the impossible happen. He probably sounded hysterical. But if this was just a hallucination, it felt very real. And he sounded pretty much like his brother...

Primus, Bulkhead couldn't even remember the last time the two had hugged. Maybe just before the attack? Just before Boulder and the rest of the Rescue Bots had left. Oh he could remember all of their names now. He had almost shot down… Blades? He'd have to apologize a lot more later.

The two separated with smiles. Excited questions flowing out of their mouths. Most of them about others who had made it out of the war, and how the two survived.

There was a cough from the corner, and the two turned to face the confused faces of the others. "Why are you so… happy to see each other?" Ratchet questioned with a raised optic ridge.

Bulkhead laughed and took a step backwards, "We're brothers!"

There was a collective gasp from the group, some of the Rescue Bot's optics sparking with realization.

"I remember now, Boulder introduced us before we left Cybertron, yes?" The blue bot- Chase- offered. The two just smiled and nodded.

Miko squealed and ran forward with an excited cackle, "Oh of course! You two look so similar! Are you a Jeep too? Oh! No, don't tell me- you're a monster truck!"

Boulder looked surprised at the energetic response, but just smiled, "Bulldozer, actually."

"That's even cooler!" Miko looked from one bot to the next.

Bulkhead laughed and turned to his brother with an overjoyed grin, "How'd you even make it out?"

"Okay so, this energon eater attacked the pod and we went into stasis to get rid of it. Heatwave had rigged it so that if a Prime message came through we would be awake and go back! Turns out, we were in stasis a lot longer than we had thought…" Boulder trailed off, a troubled expression on his face.

"That doesn't matter, I'm just so glad you're safe," Bulkhead hummed.

"Oh! Speaking of which, what about Breakdown? Where's he?" Boulder blurted out with a grin. Bulkhead's lines ran cold.

"The Deception Breakdown? Oh he's dead," Smokescreen chimed in from the corner.

Boulder's smile fell. "Wh… Decepticon… dead?"

Bulkhead swallowed his grief, giving his brother a sad smile before placing a servo on his shoulder, "Let's… talk."

The two headed off together.


	32. A Lawful Good and a Pure Neutral

It was at times like this, Jack wished he had a better job. At sixteen, nine dollars per hour seemed like a good start. But now, when he had less than twenty in his pocket while he was on the run to some island off the coast of Maine, he might be having second thoughts.

Especially now. Arcee and him were having trouble to figure out exactly what transmission ship would be able to take them to the island, when the sudden thought of food hit him. So, leaving Arcee to sit there for a small amount of time seemed to be fine. Plus, when Jack had mentioned him being hungry, Arcee enthusiastically agreed.

He had eyed a couple things on the menu, only to stop at the prices. He wavered in his place in line, the least expensive item would take pretty much all of the cash he had left. Plus, something made him feel funny at the thought of just stepping out of line. Maybe it was because he had this terrible feeling of being hunted ever since the base went down?

By time it was his turn, he tripped over three sentences, got the twenty dollars stuck in his pocket, and almost knocked over like five people. Whoops?

So now he had his food, only a few cents to spare, and strolled right out of there. The restaurant was parked on just the edge of a highway, but also lead to some housing over on the right. All they had to do was ride the highway down a little to the main shipping docks, and then they'd be able to get to wherever this rendezvous point was. It seemed like a simple enough plan, but getting onto the boat was going to be a different story. He'd have to get his alibi in order for that one…

He had Arcee parked by the farthest spot. Just next to the road, it would be easy to simply back up and be off. Quicker getaway, if it came to that. Anyway, Arcee was parked in the corner, as he had left her. But then there seemed to be a strange… person kind of circling the motorcycle. Jack couldn't see much in the cover of night, but he could see a large sphere that the person was holding. It was tucked underneath their right arm.

Jack hesitated for a minute, clutching his food. The sphere didn't look to be a weapon, but there was always the possibility. And the person could always be just someone looking at the motorcycle. That was how Jack and Arcee met, after all. But if Jack just concentrated for a bit, he could hear them talking. Talking to Arcee, or talking to what they think is just a normal motorcycle, Jack didn't know. But if they were thinking of stealing her…

Acting on a spark of courage, Jack called out, "Hey! What're you doing with my motorcycle?" The person- no, a man- jumped and whipped around to face the teenager. He was dressed in some green button-up that wasn't all that neat. Simple brown combat pants and black shoes. His hair was gray and parted in the middle, each side pushed out of the man's face. Which had some type of beard that spread to the cheekbones and over the lip. It was shaved down, but you could clearly see that it was there. Then the man had some type of… messenger bag?

The man just grinned, "Your motorcycle, or what you think is your motorcycle?" Jack stared at the man in confusion.

"Uh… what?" He didn't expect this today. Out of all things he was ready for cons, rabid animals, not having enough money, but not a mysterious man who spoke in riddles.

The man just laughed and took a few steps around Arcee, "You might not know this bike as much as you think!" he continued his circling, leaving Jack to just sit there with his bag of food. Something was wrong about this man, but in some way it felt like he… knew something. "You must not be so big! At least not as big as that Optimus fellow."

Jack choked on his tongue, the food bag dropping from his hands and splattering on the ground. He briefly mourned over the loss but decided to forget about it for now.

"Get on. We're leaving," Arcee hissed in her alt mode, driving forward just a pinch. The man jumped at the sudden reaction, but quickly calmed with a smile.

"How about this? You two headin' towards a place called Griffin Rock?" Snapping back to reality, Jack took two hurried steps forward.

"Who are you?!" His voice came out high and squeaky, but could you blame him? This stranger just walked up and told them not only that he knew Optimus, but he also knew the rendezvous point.

The man held out a hand that Jack didn't take. "Name's Woodrow Burns," after a few seconds of holding the hand out, Woodrow lowered it without a single waver of attitude,"I've got a boat heading there in the morning, you up for a ride?"

Jack narrowed his eyes. This could easily just be a trick. Maybe the cons recruited someone to bring them in? Or maybe they had some type of holograms? He knew Arcee had something like that before he drove on her…

"We'll see."

Jack hated boats. He hated the ocean. He hated everything about this.

The ship rocked with the waves, it had been three minutes since he got on it. Three minutes of pure hatred for the sea. He almost flew off the side two times, and was having trouble keeping his nausea in check. Arcee, being a robot, had no problem. Though, she did look a little irked by the unstable ground.

Woodrow laughed from the wheel. "Look excited! We still have half an hour to go!"

Jack groaned.

* * *

Jack has never felt more freedom than the moment he stepped off that boat. He stumbled away from the dock through a small crowd. Dramatically leaning on a tree and gagging. He hated the ocean.

"You okay?" Arcee hummed from her vehicle mode. Jack was only able to give her a shaky thumbs up, still clinging to the tree.

Arcee mentally shrugged and quickly pulled up both the energon scanner and the rendezvous coordinates. Strange enough, the coordinates were far off on the other side of the island. Away from where Arcee guessed was all the humans. Then the energon tracker suggested that most of the others were already there. They were collected over to the West of the docks. But there were a few rolling up just now.

She glanced over to their direction just as three vehicles rolled to a stop. She could clearly recognize Optimus and Ratchet in the lead, though there was another red vehicle trailing to the side of them. Arcee revved her engine three times, the in-alt greeting, and her two teammates revved back. The other bot stayed silent. Either not Autobot, or not accustomed to War signals.

The Prime's headlights flashed twice: the alt signal for 'Follow'. Arcee's engine hummed as she drove over to where the teenager was still standing. He didn't say a single word as he climbed on. The teen's face looked strangely pale, but Arcee had learned that sometimes the humans just did that. Jack blearily waved to Woodrow, only to stop as the man climbed into the red vehicle.

All four of them drove out for a bit, giving Arcee the perfect opportunity to scope out the island. There was a town there, and it looked pretty advanced. She could see someone flying from a rotor blade covered hat. There was countless cars. The people, however, looked pretty average. And the change in scenery was a little… strange. But Jack seemed to enjoy it. So, that was all that mattered. The roads they were driving on seemed to lead to the middle of the island. Where Arcee could see a large red building from a distance.

When they rolled closer Arcee was able to pick up a lot more details. Like how The garage-like entrance had a bell overhead. Or that to the side, the Rescue Bot insignia was engraved underneath some stone figure of a flying creature.

The doors opened, and they all rolled in. She was about to transform- when the floor she parked on suddenly started to descend.

"An underground bunker," Jack hummed out in wonder.

The Prime spoke for the first time, "Indeed."

"Nice!"

The floor thudded to a stop, revealing the deceivingly large second floor. Jack ooed as the others started to transform. She waited for a second for Jack to get off, before she joined them. Immediately, she tried to get a look at the red bot that was letting Woodrow climb out of his chassis. Who looked to be a mech, but looks could be deceiving. Yellow optics, glass chassis, ladder on his back, and a Rescue Bot insignia. Ah, so this must be one of them…

She almost pulled out her blasters when a whole lot of bots jumped in. Some of them she recognized as her teammates, and the others she could see the insignia on them. One of them, who had a white and orange paint job with some sort of blades on their back, seemed strangely disappointed at her appearance.

"Rescue Bots," the Prime started. Those who perked up Arcee filed away as the team of Rescue Bots. They were making this too easy for her. "This is Arcee," the Prime paused again before gesturing to her. The bot's optics followed. "One of my fiercest fighters and bravest warriors."

She crossed her arms over her chassis and gave all of them a once-over. She raised an optic ridge, "So this is the fresh meat?" The red mech seemed to light up.

"Arcee," Optimus sighed heavily. Her optics snapped to meet his. She was never good at standing down…

"What, you expect me to stay quiet about it when they're right there ?" She gestured at the bots, who seemed a bit alarmed. "Plus, the red one seemed excited at the idea." Said mech spluttered at being called out.

The Prime was silent for a minute, optics filled with frustration. He gestured calmly to the red mech, "Arcee, how would you get him to the ground?"

Giving the affronted mech a brief glance, her battle protocols highlighted the ladder. She nodded as the plan came together in her head, "Light blow to the knee joint. Then, when he comes down to block I circle around. Grab the ladder, kick his knees out, and flip him over my shoulder."

Optimus nodded and turned to the disturbed Rescue Bots, "Heatwave, how would you stop this from happening?"

The red mech- Heatwave- just stood there for a nanoklik. Then he piped in, "Turn around to prevent my ladder getting grabbed?"

Rookie mistake… "Then I could simply engage my melee and slice your optics out," She murmured as the simulation played in her head. Heatwave cringed a little, servos twitching. The other Rescue Bots looked purely horrified. "Maybe you have a point," she admitted.

"Okay maybe we could not talk about attacking each other?" A human with orange hair rounded the corner. He looked a little disgusted at what she described.

Arcee simply shrugged, "I was asked a question, I answered." She could tell now, that these were not battle ready bots. This was going to be a long visit…

Another human sprinted out from around the corner, holding a screen in their hands. The human paused to wheeze for a good amount of time.

The green mech took a few steps forward the wheezing human, "Graham, are you okay?" The human just waved the screen, which the green mech took into his own servos. Hurriedly reading over the screen, before jolting. The mech's yellow optics were almost excited in a way. "There's been a spike in energon on the North coast!"

* * *

It was decided that since they had a capable team, the Rescue Bots would stay behind. A spike in energon was different than a simple energon blip. A large amount could be cons, considering it just popped up. Unless energon was naturally uncovered. The North coast of the island was more secluded than the rest. Consisting of rocky beaches, thick forests, and heavy waves. It would be a perfect place for energon to be naturally uncovered…

But, since they could very much see the Cybertronian ship parked outside, it was unlikely.

They all skid to a stop just beyond the ship. Transforming, Optimus took a few steps forward, analyzing the ship.

"An Autobot starship?" He murmured lowly. The others transformed behind him. Each stepping up to get a glimpse of it. Then with a start, Wheeljack groaned.

Bulkhead gave him a confused look, "What's wrong Jackie?"

"I know who owns that ship," Wheeljack hissed through his dentae.

The tunnel besides them sprung alive with blaster fire. The bots around the ship ducked out of the way, running for cover. Just in time to witness a bot, around the same height as Optimus , run out with vehicons hot on his heels. Clutching a few crystals of energon in his right servo as he fired back with his left.

:Help that Autobot!:

Optimus commanded over the coms.

Then the others rushed into battle. They were able to take the cons by surprise, not expecting the team to be assembled so quickly. Multiple of the vehicons rushed forward without second thought, only to be caught by blaster fire and quick melee weapons.

The battle didn't last long at all. The cons were severely under prepared, only having a hundred or so soldiers. And with each of the six Autobots on the field able to take on ten- not counting Optimus or the new bot who could take out even more- vehicons apiece, it wasn't surprising.

In fact, when the final drone had fallen, most of the assembled team were already around the new bot. Said mech, had a stoic face, tall shoulder guards, and a height maybe only a bit shorter than Optimus.

Though Optimus didn't even need to introduce him. The bots knew a second-in-command when they see one.

By time they all got back, each one of them carrying three cubes of processed energon or more, the tension between the new bot and Wheeljack was thick. The others didn't mention it, or even acknowledge it.

Though when the Rescue Bots saw the new bot, you could visibly see Chase perk up. Optics lighting with recognition and respect.

The Burns chose this time to walk in, each and every one of them stopping dead when they saw him. Eyes widening as they stood there, feeling like ants compared to this giant.

With a small smile, Optimus introduced his second-in-command to the awed Burns family, "This is Ultra Magnus, the commander of the Wreckers. And, one of the best soldiers there is in the whole of the Autobot faction."

He didn't say anything else. There was no need to.

Hope filled sparks and hearts alike.


	33. A Little Bumble In The Plan

After Ultra Magnus arrived at the base, the rest of the bots were ecstatic. All of them praising the mech, and demanding stories about how he had survived. Especially Chase, who pretty much worshiped every bit of land the commander walked on. And if Blades didn't know any better, he'd think the whole of Team Prime was already back together. But he did know, and he couldn't forget. Or stop worrying about that yellow mech.

Despite almost ten solar cycles passing Bumblebee was nowhere to be found. There wasn't a single suggestion to where the scout could be. But from little hints from the Autobot medic- Ratchet- he had learned that Bumblebee had been dropped off somewhere in the middle of the continent? But even then, the normal drive time without stops would be around two to three days. Not counting any stops that the scout might've had to take. It was starting to worry him, if he was honest.

And with great joy, his processor decided to fill in the holes for him. Bumblebee getting captured, shot down, bleeding out, offlin-

No- no, he was not going to go there.

But he couldn't stop thinking about that day in the caves. Where he got the first taste of what a Deception attack would be like. He didn't even know how many there were down with them in the caves, but all he did know was the damage they caused. Just one of them almost killed the Chief's brother, Woodrow. And who knows how many hurt Optimus. Oh, he would never forget how the Prime looked, limping back to the Rescue Bots. His weapons were still engaged, and he was covered in dents, scratches and energon . More than he'd seen as his time as a Rescue Bot field medic .

He didn't know how many it took to harm the Prime that way, but he had a good guess of what would happen if the same amount got their servos on Bumblebee. It was difficult not to think about it. No matter how many episodes of Cupcake Hoarders he watched.

Then it came to him with a start, he didn't even know how many cons Bumblebee could take on! He could be the best fighter on the team for all he knew! So that is why, he decided, he would cleverly ask around to see just how good Bumblebee was.

And where else to start than the new femme? She seemed to know how to fight, so she would know if Bumblebee was good at fighting! So he had walked up, asked a super clever question that would never tip her off, and got his answer. Pretty much all bots were specialized in combat on Team Prime. And he's guessing the scout was included in that as well… but he wasn't sure.

That was how he found himself here, waiting for a response from Optimus. He spent pretty much an hour previously asking everyone on Team Prime about battle stuff. Blades didn't know why he did it, he just got carried away. Farther than carried away, he was asking Optimus now of all bots…

The Prime paused for a second, taking in his question. All the while Blades stood there, immediately regretting saying anything. He should've stopped at Arcee, he didn't need to ask literally everyone.

"All of my soldiers can easily defend themselves," Optimus stated bluntly. Exactly like every other response from the others. Blades learned nothing new from this. Holding back a huff, he was just about to thank Optimus and walk away- "So I ask of you, please do not underestimate my scout." It was so out of the blue that Blades almost didn't catch it- almost.

The heli spluttered, fighting a sudden warmth in the faceplates. "I never- why would…" he trailed off, stumbling over his own words. "I never said anything about Bumblebee !"

The Prime just nodded, "Of course, I apologize."

To preserve his own dignity, Blades decided he needed to escape. Right now. So, he quickly uttered a goodbye, turned on his heel and ran out the door. Though, who knows if it was a good or bad thing that he missed Optimus's knowing smile.

* * *

The highway went on forever. Just miles and miles of unending road. Cars whizzed pass them, going to who knows where. Raf tried to count how many vehicles he had never seen before; but they all just blurred together.

It had been seven days since they had to leave the base, and ever since then things had been crazy. Both him and Bee had to evade cons for a long time. Who knew they'd instantly scan the highways? Bee thought of just hanging around smaller roads for now. Too bad you can only stay so long before neighborhood watch was hunting you down too. They had to rotate streets, but they couldn't get too far from the food places.

Raf might not be above asking for food from strangers, but he was above dumpster diving. And a few times he could find some money along the ground. It didn't feel the best… but now that they were moving fast along the highway he wouldn't need to worry about it!

To get to the highway was difficult with all of the cons. But it turns out, they were easily fooled by paint job changes. They were able to find a few cans of yellow and black paint, but it definitely wasn't enough to cover the whole of Bee's alt mode. That was how Raf learned that Bee can use such a small amount of paint to cover a lot larger space. He didn't know how, but all he did know is that suddenly Bee had a new paint job.

So now they were on the highway. He could count almost five new cars he had never seen before. Interestingly, most of them were more designer cars. Things that people in Jasper would not buy, rather getting more air conditioning instead. He was pretty sure most people in Jasper were shocked at the sight of Bee.

Speaking of which, over the whole trip Bee hadn't said much other than checking if he was okay. And in the beginning, when he said that when they got to Griffin Rock and met these Rescue Bots that he'd like them. And oh- he almost forgot. Bee knew of the Rescue Bots? At least knew of them enough to think that Raf would enjoy them too.

"Hey Bee," he hummed out into the silence. Bee let out a single beep of recognition. "Could you tell me more about the Rescue Bots?" He adjusted himself in the chair, the highway flying past him.

Bee buzzed low- his version of the 'hmm' noise. :"Well, they work really well together. Sometimes better than us! There's four of them, all mechs- or males… each of them really different. Like, all of them have really unique personalities that you think wouldn't work but they do."

Raf nodded along. "They sound really cool,"

:"They are! There's Heatwave, he's the leader of the bunch. Ironically, he has a fiery personality and his alt is a fire truck! He might be a little blunt, but he really cares about the team. And he's interested in joining Team Prime, but I'm pretty sure Optimus will say no. And Boulder, who's pretty much a complete opposite of Heatwave. He's really kind and soft spoken. Likes nature and is really smart. But he's a bulldozer,": Both him and Bee had a little chuckle.

"I'm sure if Miko knew him, she'd have a field day about his alt form. Might not be so happy about his attitude!"

:"You're telling me! She'd especially not like Chase. He's a police car and- of course- really likes rules-": Raf laughed, these guys really sounded fun! :"-Apparently he's memorized all human police codes? He showed me some once. I never knew you guys are so strict… Anyway! He… tries to get human culture but he doesn't really get it. Except the police rules.":

"And the forth one?" Raf briefly tapped a rhythm with his fingers. Swinging his feet absentmindedly.

:"Oh that's Blades ! Blades is a helicopter and he-": Bee did his version of a giggle, a chirp- :"He's really nice! He can be a little nervous sometimes but overall he's a really good bot!":

Bee had a strange tone. It was a little more difficult to hear how he means to say his words than actually translating the words but this… this was different. "Oh, how so?" he hummed innocently.

:"Just-": he trailed off into a group of chirps :"-he can be super brave when he needs to be! Even though he's scared of heights he still flies for the team. He also likes a lot of stuff I do, unlike some other bots on Team Prime, and has a great taste. In movies, TV shows, games. Blades likes to do all sorts of fun stuff, I can't even list it all for you. And he really cares about the members of his team. He appreciates when I come over to visit. And I guess I have to admit I really enjoy seeing him too. I mean, he's just really nice to be around. I can't explain why he seems so different… he's just-":

"Woah Bee, you're really warming up," Raf chimed in.

Bee came to a spluttering halt. The scout seemed to be at a loss for words. Though Raf didn't know if that was for better or worse. Throughout Bee's rant, the cab seemed to be gradually heating up. At first he didn't notice it, but then Raf just happened to place a hand on Bee's dashboard. He had no clue why, all Bee was doing was talking.

:"Whoops- sorry! Must've... turned the heat up!":

Though it was sometimes difficult to pick up on Bee's tone, Raf couldn't miss how badly that seemed like an excuse…

* * *

It was later on the tenth day, that the Rescue Bots got a call from Woodrow.

Woodrow had gone back to the mainland dock, waiting to pick up and ship over any Autobots that he could find. Optimus profusely thanked him for the help, and let him be sent off. Woodrow had said that if he found anyone, he'd call just before he pulled into the Griffin Rock Cargo Dock. Woodrow would give a description of what the bot looked like, and held them on his boat until the bots were close enough.

When Woodrow called in again, it wasn't hard to pick out Blades rushing to the side of it. And as soon as Woodrow mentioned a black and yellow paint job, Blades was already flying off. He forgot to bring Dani with him, but he was sure he'd get lectured for that later.

Unsurprisingly, flying to that dock was the fastest he's ever flown.

* * *

The ride to the island was nice. He had almost forgotten what it felt like to ride on a boat. Bee relaxed on his wheels, Raf excitedly chattering inside his alt.

"Oh this is so cool! You said this place was an experimental ground for tech?" The young boy burst out, eyeing the beach.

:"Yeah! When we get all settled down there, I can show you all of the cool inventions! Maybe we could get your laptop that upgrade you wanted?":At the mention of that , Raf was practically bouncing in the seat with gleaming eyes and a wide smile.

"I've always wanted to get that new update! How long do you think it'll take? To settle down, I mean!" Raf questioned, though he didn't lose a single flair of that ecstatic energy.

:"Well…": the scout trailed off, absentmindedly eyeing the skies, :"It didn't take them long to welcome me in! Though, I'm just one bot compared to the whole team!":

Raf was going to say something, only Woodrow, the human taking them to the island, walked in. "You're free to go! There's some bots coming for you, so don't try to immediately take off- or shoot one of them down! Big OP does not want that happening again!" The scout missed that last comment, too busy making sure Raf had everything before they left.

:"Thank you!": Bee beeped.

"He says thanks!" Raf called out the window just before the scout rolled out.

The dock was loaded with people and cars, the scout had to take a careful precaution. Though, since he'd lived in an alt mode for forever it wasn't that hard. In fact, the most difficult thing was trying to find somewhere that he could transform at. He had been in his alt for so long, he needed to stretch his legs. So, making sure he found a little cluster of forest out of view of the docks, he first let out Raf before transforming.

He ex-vented lightly. Okay, yeah that felt better. Walking in little circles, the plating on his legs shifted a little. Arranging back into their comfortable setting.

"The new paint job looks good in your bipedal mode, Bee!" Raf called up from where he was cycling through his PC.

He let out a low buzz, pulling his arms up over his helm in a stretch. :"You think the others will like it too?":

"Yeah! You look cool!"

Bee was just about to thank the boy- only to pause at the sound of a dull thud somewhere nearby. He turned around, arms still high over him helm, only to pause at the sight of a familiar copter-bot just a little ways away. The two's optics met, and for just a nanoklik the scout could see the pure relief and happiness there.

"Bumblebee!" Blades cried, taking a good few quick steps forward. He surprised Bee with a hug, practically crashing into the scout's chassis.

And for a moment Bee felt almost giddy at the touch. Such an overbearing feeling of joy made him hug back without a second thought. Letting out little chirps all the while. And when the mech hastily pulled away, Bee felt a slight tinge of disappointment.

"I was so worried! You didn't let us know anything would be happening and then all of a sudden an image of your base up in flames was on the TV…" the copter-bot immediately started to ramble off his concerns. And if Bee didn't know the mech, he would've been startled by the onslaught.

:"Hey, I'm okay! We're all okay! Sorry for not calling ahead though, we had so little time-":

"Who's this?" Raf called from behind him, accidentally cutting the scout off. Blades jumped, optics widening at the sight of the boy.

Before Blades started to panic, :"Oh this is Blades! Blades, this is Raf. He's my charge!": he quickly gestured between the two of them. The scout felt a bit of himself relax when Blades did as well.

Raf ooh'ed a little, taking a few small steps forward, "So you're Blades," then the boy squinted, as if putting together details in his helm. "Bee's said a lot about you !"

The scout jolted, startled at being called out so suddenly. Fighting a furious heat in his face plates as his optics spiraled out wide. He'd almost forgotten that he'd told Raf all about the Rescue Bots.

"All good things, I promise!" As if rubbing rust into the wound. Yeah, his whole frame was warming up now. Why'd Raf have to say that out loud?He completely avoided Blades's gaze. Choosing off into the forest a better place to look. His tanks were rolling uncomfortably, and his servos felt fidgety. Bee'd never felt like this before, and he decided he didn't like it.

Blades spluttered out something that probably was going to be a sentence, "Oh… well-" only, he never got to finish. Optimus, Ratchet, and Heatwave rolled into the docks. The sight of them quickly stealing Bee's attention. All of the sudden, the feeling was thrown away and all he could focus on was that they were safe.

He let out a little honk, and watched as the trio skid to a halt. And then turned to drive towards the scout. He took a step back, ushering Raf along as well, as they transformed in the little clearing.

The first thing Ratchet and Optimus did was look him over, probably checking for injuries. But Heatwave furrowed his optic ridges a bit, "You got a paint change?"

He could see Blades startle besides him, as though he didn't notice before. Bee found himself absentmindedly preening. He told himself in his head it wasn't just because he knew Blades was now looking. :"Yeah, cons wouldn't allow us on the highway without a change in design. By the way, did you know how expensive in human currency those are?": he whirred.

"Which one is this?" Raf pretty much stepped into the spotlight- all of the bots' helms snapping to where he stood.

:"Heatwave, the leader of the Rescue Bots.": Humorously, the mech in question seemed to puff out in pride.

It didn't take long for them to get ready to head to the firehouse. But just before they set off, Bee realized something. Raf never said anything about him talking about Heatwave, like he did with Blades.

Huh.

* * *

When they arrived to the firehouse, almost everyone welcomed him back. The Burns family seemed excited at his appearance. A few of them even complimented his new paint job. Bumblebee already felt in his place- only to be struck dumb at the sight of Ultra Magnus. He was used to being smaller than most bots around him, but this was ridiculous . The mech rivaled Optimus in height, and Chase in strictness.

But he seemed to be the only addition to everyone he already knew. He was content- for now. Bee knew that the firehouse didn't have many extra berth-rooms so some might have to share. And then there was the energon, he wondered briefly if the rations would stay the same. But also there was-

"Hey Bee, did you want to watch this movie with me?" The scout turned to the sight of Blades. Said mech was holding a small case in his hand with the label 'Jurassic Park 3' on it. A loud beep escaped before he could stop it. Nodding excitedly, he had to hold back from bouncing on his pedes. He needed to see this one!

And the two bounced off into the TV room, unaware of the two that watched from the corner. And the one young boy who was walking to join them.

"There's no way there's nothing there…" Miko hummed, narrowing her eyes at the retreating bots.

Dani nodded from beside her, "At least not on Blades's end." Miko jolted up, an almost wicked grin splitting her face.

"Oh? Tell me more-"

Deciding he wanted to be known, Raf stepped forward, "What are you guys talking about?"

"Oh nothing- just bots having crushes," Miko hummed nonchalantly, like it wasn't the greatest discovery of her life time.

Then Dani's eyes sparkled with a sudden idea. Leaning forward, "Have you… noticed anything with Bee and Blades?" Miko's excited face then whipped around to stare at him.

"Well… when he was telling me of the Rescue Bots he started to warm up talking about Blades… and Bee seemed really embarrassed when I brought this up in front of him." He admitted and watched as the two absolutely lit up.

Almost screaming, "OH MY GOD IT'S MUTUAL!" Miko cackled.

Dani placed a hand on Raf's shoulder, smiling really wide, "You have to tell us if anything like this happens again, okay?"

Not knowing what he was getting into Raf agreed.

AND THAT'S ALL I HAVE FOR NOW, IF YOU WANT TO SEE MORE, LEND A HAND AND SEND ME A MESSAGE!


	34. Griffin's Nest

Remaining members to reunite with Team Prime

Glad to be back, make sure to send thanks to my newest writer: IceAgeDragon

With most of the team at the Firehouse, Cody knew that if anyone saw the new group of bots wandering around Griffin Rock it would take a good story to explain to everyone where their family are getting their new 'gadgets' to help with rescues. With a sigh, he turned to look at everyone and saw Blades and Bumblebee watching a movie with his sister and Miko. His dad was speaking with Optimus and Ratchet while his other two brothers were doing their own thing while everyone else was either catching up or on patrol. With a simple shrug of his shoulders, he grabbed his hoverboard and went to meet Francine at the park, not knowing his exit was noticed by Jack and Rafael.

When he left was when Ratchet made his point as Charlie Burns sighed and Optimus simply shook his head while Ratchet went to the command center. When the old medic entered the room he was relieved that he no longer had to work with human technology anymore when seeing the console. He approached the console and smoothed his servo over it as a faint smile made its way on his face at seeing proper cybertronian technology than having it mixed with human technology or just plain human technology. He composed himself quickly and pressed a few buttons and began to wait until someone answered.

Meanwhile at the military base at Jasper, Nevada. Agent Fowler and June were in Fowler's office stricken with worry. June was pacing back and forth and jumped when the phone began to ring.

Fowler quickly answered with an annoyed grunt. "What is it now Lord Megatron"

"Agent Fowler. It's Ratchet"

"Ratchet! How's Jack! Is he with you!?" June asked in worry

"Jack is fine, he is here along with the rest of us" Ratchet informed "listen we don't have much time, I have taken a tremendous yet calculated risk in contacting you. Hopefully, the Deceptions are not monitoring their own frequencies as closely as they are no doubt of the humans"

June and Fowler looked at each other as they listened to ratchet. "I am transmitting our current coordinates. And hope to see you both soon" and with that the line was dead

Fowler quickly checked his cellphone and stared quizzically at the Autobot's current location before facepalming.

"What? Did something happen!?" June asked in worry as Fowler quickly reassured her that nothing was wrong

"No. Nothings wrong, it's just that I have the memory of a GOLDFISH!" Fowler groaned out as June stared at him quizzically

"What?" She asked as Fowler sighed

"Nevermind, but let's go I know where they are," Fowler said as he and Darby left the building

They made sure no one noticed them leaving and double-checked their surroundings. The moment they stepped outside they saw a green vehicle waiting for them outside. They stared at the car quizzically before the car honked at them.

"Well don't just stand there. Your presence is requested" it said making Fowler and June jump back

It was Fowler who narrowed his eyes at the car in distrust. "How do we know you don't work for the cons"

"If I wanted to hand you over to them I would've made a scene by now"

June didn't say anything but made her way to the mystery bot and went inside. Fowler stared dumbstruck but composed himself as he sat in the passenger seat as June took the driver's seat. The car started and raced off and away from the base. It was quiet for a few minutes before it was broken by Fowler.

"Who are you anyway?" Fowler asked as June wondered the same thing

"The name is QuickShadow and I was instructed to escort you and to the Autobots new base safe and unharmed" she informed

"Well it's nice to meet you QuickShadow," June said with a smile as the bot hummed

"It's nice to meet the both of you as well, now for the time being relax your postures and act civilized. We don't want any Decepticons to think I'm more than just a car" QuickShadow instructed

"You must be one of primes secret agents," Fowler said as he relaxed slightly and stared at the scenery out the window

"And we must keep it secret. Now pretty soon I'll have to change my paint job before the cons notice that I've been around the human military base" QuickShadow informed

Before June and Fowler could react, QuickShadow scanned a passing car and changed her current green paint job to pristine blue. To say witnessing that made Fowler and June dumbstruck to say anything.

"That's better. When we reach the border I'll have to change my paint job again no doubt Soundwave's little eyes in the sky will catch on to our little charade" QuickShadow said before noticing the humans perturbed faces "are you two alright?"

"We're fine" June and Fowler responded immediately

With that said the ride was quiet and peaceful. Meanwhile, back on Griffin Rock, the rescue bots were all out on patrol while Team Prime stayed at the base. When Ratchet ended the call he sighed and the worry didn't leave his face until he felt a familiar servo rest on his shoulder plate.

"The Islands technology shields us from the Decepticons monitoring systems. We will be safe here old friend" Optimus reassured as Ratchet didn't look convinced

"The deceptions are more persistent and with Megatron taking control" Ratchet began but the stress and worry began to catch up to him

"You need to rest. I shall monitor the console while you recharge" Optimus stated as Ratchet smiled as he went to go recharge

Once ratchet left the room, Optimus pressed a few buttons and called upon an old friend of his. It didn't take long until a familiar old mech came into the screen's view.

"Well if it isn't O.P himself, How's it going old friend," he said as Optimus smiled

"It has been a while High Tide. And I just say that I wish this call was of friendly matters than if official ones" Optimus informed as High Tide sighed

"The war is near its peak. I feel it in these old circuits, what do you need me to do Optimus?" High Tide asked

"I will send you coordinates to our location and be discreet upon arrival. The deceptions have taken over our base of operations and we managed to scatter to a secret location" Optimus informed

"Don't worry O.P I may be an old mech but I still have a few tricks up these servos" High Tide

With that, the call ended and Optimus sighed, the war has taken its toll on his team but not the innocent mechs that he's sworn to protect from the war as long his spark still pulsed within his frame. With a grunt, he left the command center and went to get some recharge himself.


	35. All Here

June, Fowler, and Quickshadow finally make it to Griffin Rock, as well as the Main Land Rescue Bots.

Thanks to IceAgeDragon for writing.

The drive to say was a long one, Fowler and June were lucky enough to change into fresh clothes when they made a stop in one of the cities. Currently, Fowler was at the wheel while June slept in the backseats. To say Fowler was glad that no one else knew about the situation in Jasper, yet it the thought of when they'll find out would cause widespread panic throughout the state then maybe the world. Fowler sighed as he saw more road and nothing else in the view in front of him. Quickshadow, who was now painted red, heard his displeased sigh. Drove to the side of the road and stopped; Fowler looked at her and was about to say something but the need to stretch his limbs came before that.

"I know the feeling of being stuck in one position is excruciating. Thought you could use a stretch, is still in recharge. We'll wait, as to how you humans say it, an hour until she awakens" Quickshadow said as Fowler smiled

"Alright, I'm gonna enjoy the time I have in open space before we're off again," Fowler said as he walked around and did a few exercises

Quickshadow said nothing as she decided a little recharge wouldn't hurt. In a nano click, she was in deep recharge as Fowler did his exercise routine. After a while, June was already awake and stretching her limbs as Quickshadow did the same when she was in her Bi-pede mode. The three refiled as Quickshadow decided to call it and then hit the road again. June was now at the wheel as Fowler looked at the landscape again. It was days later when they arrived in Maine, they finally made it to one part the locals dubbed it as the Mainland. With relief, they hopped on the ferry and made their way to Griffith Rock. Quickshadow didn't hesitate to call prime about their arrival and upon arriving did June perk up to seeing her son safe and sound along with the the ferry docked, June ran off the dock and hugged Jack then turning to Raf and Miko and hugged them as well.

"I'm assuming you must be William Fowler and June Darby," Said a man in a police uniform

"Yes, A friend informed me that you must be Chief Charlie Burns" Fowler replied

With a nod Charlie motioned for them to follow him, Fowler and June went to Quickshadow while the kids went with Charlie. The ride was short and quiet but when they arrived at the firehouse did everyone hurry to get the secrecy out the way from public eyes and talk normally. When entering the lower part of the firehouse did proper introductions begin.

"Finally, I won't be driving for a cycle if I can help it. My struts are killing me" Quickshadow groaned as she stretched her limbs after transforming into Bipede mode

"It is good to see you Quickshadow. Proper introductions are in order, I presume" Optimus said as everyone nodded "Everyone this is Quickshadow, she has been a secret agent amongst us and gathering information on the Decepticons"

"Nice to meet everyone, and now as well it is a pleasure. I deserve some recharge, I'll be heading to the guest quarters" Quickshadow said as Heatwave pointed at the right

"Same as it always been" Heatwave replied as the agent nodded and left to get some rest.

Quickshadow stopped for a moment and turned to the group. "Hightide and his crew should be arriving soon. I suggest keeping an eye out in the water"

Optimus nodded and then turned to the others and heard ratchet mutter some words in cybertronian. Luckily for them, Raf doesn't understand their native language than what Bee speaks to everyone else.

"Great, I'm not looking forward to swabbing the deck" Heatwave muttered making his fellow rescue bots snicker

"Hightide means well Heatwave, now the Burns family this is Agent Fowler, and Darby" Optimus introduced

"Nice meeting you all, we'll get better acquainted once everyone gets here," Fowler said before noticing Heatwave's stare at him "yes, Heatwave?"

"Weren't you the round guy from when we first met?" Heatwave asked as Fowler and Optimus sighed

Kade began to snicker as he saw the look on Heatwave's face and Fowler's. Chief Burns glared at his son before turning to Heatwave. "Heatwave we don't say those things to other people"

"But...fine" Heatwave said as he crossed his arms and stood straight again

Fowler scowled at his response but let it go for now, as for Optimus he would have to give Heatwave and his crew proper lessons on what not to mention at a human. According to Miko, they can be very sensitive to certain topics. June was currently checking the kids for any injuries and seeing if they were properly fed and hydrated and unconsciously she checked Cody. He didn't exactly have the heart to say that he was fine when seeing the worry in her eyes.

"Mom I think everyone is fine. What I want now is for you to get some rest and we'll talk tomorrow" Jack promised as June nodded and gave her son one more hug

"I want the whole story, don't leave anything out" June sternly said as Cody's sister, Danny, led her to the guest room upstairs

It wasn't long before everyone decided rest was the best idea, though there wasn't much space for everyone in the garage, the rescue bots offered to let team prime sleep in their ship's quarters but Ratchet was the only one that took that offer. That day it was surprisingly quiet for once at Griffith Rock, it didn't take long for the rescue bots to fall into recharge.

The next time they woke up was to the sound of alarms blaring as the rescue bots quickly took action. Team prime barely had to time to react as the constant fear of being found by the enemy drained much of their energy and staying awake through some nights didn't help at all. With the bots, they were currently doing rescues at sea while Blades flew around to see if anyone else was stranded.

"I don't see anything," Blades said as he looked around as Danny did the same

"It won't hurt to keep look- nevermind tell Heatwave that I've found the problem" Danny deadpanned as Blades sighed

"Why" Blades groaned as he saw the problem as well /heatwave, inform Optimus that Hightide is here/

/Primus help us/ Heatwave groaned as he could already feel his servos ache from swabbing the deck

When seeing Hightide's ship submerge from the water did Blades land. Danny carefully got out of him and took a few steps back to give blades some room to transform into his Bipede form.

"Hey Hightide" Blades greeted the old sea bot before hearing familiar barking and shouting on the ship "How are Blurr and Salvage doing?"

"Those scallywags can barely tell what's in front of their servo before it hits them" Hightide sighed

Before blades could ask, he was suddenly run over by a purple bot. Landing with a grunt he scowled as the bot sheepishly looked at him. "Hey blades"

"Blurr, get off" Blades sternly said as said bot scrambled to get off him

It didn't long for everyone to arrive and Blades realized Team Prime didn't waste any time getting to the ship. Greetings were said as Ratchet scowled while Prime tried to apologize to his friend.

"Who else knows" Ratchet growled out as Optimus quickly reassured that it was only Hightide and no one else besides them but Ratchet didn't look convinced and simply walked off and dragged Blurr and Salvage away to give them check-ups


	36. Meeting

At last, the final chapter, thank you all for being patient.

Thanks to IceAgeDragon for writing.

To say that Hightide's ship was beginning to feel crowded was an understatement but it was the truth even though the ship was accommodated for Hightide's size. Blades was talking with Blurr while Bumblebee stood next to Optimus and often diverted his attention to Blades with a dreamy look on his face. Smokescreen nudged him and stared at him quizzically before looking at Bee's object of attention, he snorted as he gave Bee a cheeky grin.  
Bee growled as he excused himself as Optimus nodded and continued speaking with Hightide. He dragged Smokescreen to a far off corner and growled. "Smokescreen you say a word I will wield your intake shut" the other bot laughed but kept his intake shut  
"Who knew you would fall for somebot in the middle of a-" Smokescreen began before hearing Blurr laugh along with Blades "war"  
"Welcome to my world" Bumblebee smirked while Smokescreen scowled  
Smokescreen then had a cheeky grin and went over to talk with Blades and Blurr while Bee starred flabbergasted at him. Bumblebee grumbled and went back to stand next to Optimus, the elder bot said nothing of his foul mood but then called everyone to discuss what to do next for their current situation.  
"Now things have become dire since Megatron's invasion of Jasper, Nevada. For now, we must remain secret until we can strike against the Decepticons" Optimus said as team prime muttered in agreement  
"Megatron will no doubt try to conquer other countries across Earth" Arcee stated as the rescue bots tensed at the possibility  
"Not if we can foil Megatron's plans before that could happen," Ultra Magnus said as the rescue bots felt more distressed in their involvement in the war plans  
Hightide managed to see the rescue bots unease and motioned for them to head below the ship until they were done talking. Bumblebee saw them leave but the others didn't seem to notice them leaving at all as they kept talking about battle plans and strategy. It was Optimus who noticed them gone that he paused to search for them around the deck.  
"And the rescue bots?" Optimus asked as the others took notice of their absence  
"They're fine O.P. they felt uneasy sent them below deck" Hightide informed as Optimus frowned  
"It was not my intention to make them feel uneasy about the situation at hand" Optimus admitted as Ratchet sighed  
"It's alright Optimus, they were in stasis for so many stellar cycles. They would feel unease at some point" Ratchet explained as Optimus frowned before turning sighing  
"I know old friend, but hopefully they will not be brought into any dangerous conflict between us and the Decepticons" Optimus said as the others felt his concern  
Down below the ship's bunker the bots were currently lounging around or talking as they waited for Hightide to inform them when they were done talking. Blades was still talking with Blurr until the purple bot smirked when he noticed Blades kept mentioning a certain yellow bot.  
"So you and Bee a thing or what?" Blurr asked causing Blades to spit out static before flushing a bright blue  
"What!? No me and Bumblebee are just friends" Blades quickly said as he blushed darker  
"Sure and I'm pink" Blurr teased as Blades groaned in embarrassment  
The room erupted in laughter as Blades felt he could offline from embarrassment, after a while, everyone was now back on the island and the bunker at the firehouse never felt so crowded.  
"We need a new base" Heatwave stated with arms crossed as the others immediately agreed.  
"I'll call Doc," Charlie said as he phoned Doc Greene the humans looked at them before Miko gave a cheeky grin  
"So who's up to play Monster Slayer six?" Miko asked while Jack shrugged  
"I call first game" Jack declared as they went to the common room  
While the kids left, Danny, Kade, and Graham declined. The three left to do their things until the next emergency alarm. Quickshadow came out of her quarters and noticed how cramped it was in the bunker.  
"We need a new base" Quickshadow stated making the others groan  
"We shall speak about this next cycle, for now, we must arrange patrol routes and where to recharge until we find a new base of operations," Optimus said  
Heatwave was about to say something but the alarms began to blare and Chase seemed to deflate as Cody informed him of the emergency through his commlink. " Paws is stuck up a tree once again" he informed as he transformed and waited for Chief Burns  
"Air freshener isn't going to help with what Paws leaves inside you," Heatwave remarked while Chase honked angrily at him  
When Chief Burns arrived he and Chase left to deal with 's cat. Ultra Magnus was very confused and turned to Optimus. "What's a Paws?" he asked while Optimus turned to face him  
"From Heatwave's reports. Paws is an organic feline that the humans keep as companions" Optimus informed  
"That doesn't explain Heatwave's response to the organic's predicament," Ultra Magnus said while Heatwave snickered  
" Paws leaves his thank you gift inside Chase alt-mode" Heatwave informed as Bulkhead and Wheeljack gave a look of disgust  
"That is disgusting," Wheeljack said as Miko's laugh was heard at his response

The day was long and when nightfall came everyone made sleeping arrangements for the meantime: Quickshadow and Arcee, Ultra Magnus and Chase, Bulkhead and Boulder, Optimus and Ratchet, Bumblebee and Blades, and finally Heatwave and Smokescreen. Wheeljack took to sleeping inside his ship since sharing a room was never particularly his style. It was the next day that began to get stressing as they were all currently at Doc's lab while discussing the plans to their new base and where a proper location would be appropriate.  
"We should stay close but not too close to the humans" Ultra Magnus declared  
"I can't believe I'm saying this but Magnus is right, I don't mind humans but remember Silas?" Wheeljack commented as Bulkhead winced at the memory  
"Alright, so that leaves Griffin Rock out the equation," Doc said as he crossed the island off the list of possible locations  
"The humans could stay here on the island, but they need their own living arrangements," Chase said as June agreed  
"Not that I don't mind spending time with you Autobots but being back in a house with things we need is much appreciated," June said as Fowler had no argument  
"Leave that to me, I've already come up with new aliases for us while we are here and managed to get the kids back in school" Fowler informed as June smiled while the kids groaned  
"Thank you, William," June said as her phone began to ring, quickly answering it she ignored the shocked stares "Clare Daniels, yes, Oh! That's great. I'll be on my way" June said happily as she hung up the phone  
"Mom?" Jack began but June waved him off  
"William will explain everything, now I have to get going, don't want to be late for my job interview at the hospital" June said as she turned to Heatwave "I don't suppose you can give me a lift?"  
Heatwave nodded and transformed into his alt-mode and opened the door for , Kade also went and the three left while Jack was confused before narrowing his eyes at Fowler.  
"Just how close are you and my mom?" Jack asked with narrowed eyes as Fowler coughed awkwardly and changed the subject when seeing the map on Doc's desk  
"Here. The Autobots can have their base here. I can pull a few strings to get the property and you guys can do any renovations so long as there is cloaking involved" Fowler said as Jack glared at him  
Doc Greene enhanced the map and circled the location Fowler suggested, It was away from Griffin Rock yet it was in close distance. Humans rarely go near the abandoned base which made it perfect, and the buildings were perfectly suited to their size.  
"This could work" Ratchet began as he and Doc began to create blueprints for their new base while Boulder added his input here and there  
The bots began to contribute to their new base while everyone else left for patrol, the kids explored more of Griffin Rock with Cody as their guide.  
"So what's your school like?" Miko asked Cody shrugged  
"Well it's not so bad, I'm still in middle school not sure about the High School here, best to ask when you guys attend the tour tomorrow," Cody said making Miko frown  
"Looks like I'm attending your class Cody," Rafael said as he looked over his new alias "I have to do eighth grade. Never did that before, skipped a few grades when I was back in Jasper"  
"Well it's not so bad so long as you're not late for home period" Cody informed as Rafael took note of that  
The four went to the arcade to enjoy what Miko dubbed "their last day of freedom" before heading back to school.


	37. (Side Story) The Tide is High: Part 1

Now before we continue with the story, let me tell you of an alternative version of High Tide coming to Earth.

Thanks to IceAgeDragon for writing.

The night was cold and dark, the stars shone above the waters as fishermen were getting ready to head back to shore. They packed their quota in ice and mopped the deck of fish guts and blood. Nothing unusual ever happened on the seas of the Atlantic, well nothing too unusual on a regular basis, the fishermen minded their business before hearing sounds of an aircraft that wasn't familiar to them. They all looked at the sky and found nothing until one of the men started screaming and pointed at the water as he looked pale as a ghost. Everyone stared in awe as a tall metal contraption arose from the waters. When the fisherman flashed fog lights at the metal being did it quickly go back underwater to stay hidden.

The news spread like wildfire across the country as news reports retold the story of what happened at the Atlantic. Scientists came to do underwater study of where the being emerged and where it disappeared to. It wasn't long until a certain spunky teenage girl saw the news report while surfing the web on her cellphone. She showed the video to her friends which attracted some unwanted attention as they currently watched the report as one of their friends got nervous upon seeing the being emerge from the water.

"What's the matter Raph, scared of a little sea monster" a certain blonde mocked as the other frowned making his friends glare at him

"Knock it off Vince, it's probably some joke made by the locals" A raven haired boy said as he rolled his eyes

"Whatever, but if it was real. I would go head to toe with that thing!" Vince cackled as his group of friends laughed alongside him

"Oh sure, you probably will get squished like a bug before you even make a move" a Japanese girl mocked making her friends and a few other students laugh

Vince turned red and tried to mutter a comeback but he instead huffed in anger and stormed off. Everyone watched him leave the cafeteria as they either chuckled or laughed at him as his friends followed behind. Jack chuckled as he gave his friend a high-five for defending Raph from the school's bully.

"Thanks guys" Raph said gratefully as his friends smiled "and nice burn Miko" he chuckled as said girl laughed

"No problem squirt" Miko said with a smile as she ruffled Ralph's hair

"Besides we all know Vince will be too chicken to actually go up against an imaginary monster" Jack laughed as he took a bite of his pizza

They laughed and ate their lunches before the next class of the day began. Meanwhile in a secret high facility base, you can hear the sounds of someone grumbling and muttering to himself as he works the console and monitors for any strange activity. Soon large but soft steps were heard as they came into the main room at the base.

"Ratchet, has there been any progress on locating any energon?" A deep voice asked as the other sighed

"No, and I'm afraid our energon reserves will be gone before the end of this orn" Ratchet reminded before turning to look at his friend "Optimus if we don't find energon soon we will be offline before we know it"

"Don't worry old friend, Luck will be on our side soon" Optimus reassured before the sudden beeping of the monitor alerted them to a new energy source

"That's strange, the system is saying there is a new spark signature here on earth" Ratchet informed as he began to check the system for any viruses

Optimus frowned upon seeing where the location of the spark signatured originated from."it would seem that the spark energy is coming from the Atlantic Ocean, where humans are most likely searching for the source themselves"

Ratchet huffed before calling in the others. "Bulkhead, Arcee. Come in bulkhead and Arcee"

/Bulkhead here. What's up Doc?/

/Arcee reporting in. What's the matter Ratchet?/

"Come back to base so I can brief you in on the situation. Ratchet out" he said before ending the call

"And what of bumblebee?" Optimus asked as he quirked a brow at Ratchet as said bot sigh in frustration

"Before you arrived, I've been trying to get bumblebee to answer his commlink but I've received no answer" Ratchet informed as Optimus sighed

"He must be out of range…" Optimus said as he looked back at the monitor

"Probably, but bumblebee is still a young mech, he's more likely to be off somewhere and doing his patrol right after" Ratchet huffed as Optimus smiled

It didn't take long for Bulkhead and Arcee to arrive at base, the two transformed back into their bi-pede mode and walked into the main room. Bulkhead was the first to notice that a certain yellow scout was missing.

"Where's bumblebee?" Bulkhead asked as he searched the room once more

"He's off somewhere, he hasn't answered any of my calls" Ratchet huffed before getting back at the situation at hand "Now as to why I called you both back from patrol, there's been a spark signature located in the Atlantic Ocean"

Both bots froze before they rebooted their audial sensors and had to blink a couple times at the news. "Is it an autobot or decepticon?" Arcee asked as ratchet frowned

"Now that is a question I wish I could answer" Ratchet sighed as he turned to look at the monitor "but for now I'll bridge you to the coordinates of the last time the spark signature was last recorded"

"While Ratchet bridges you both to your destination, I will search for Bumblebee" Optimus said as Ratchet frowned

The old medibot didn't say a word but created the groundbridge for Arcee and Bulkhead. The two warriors walked through and began their mission while Optimus waited for ratchet to put in a new set of coordinates.

"I presume bumblebee will be on monitor duty with me once again" Ratchet stated as Optimus frowned

"Though Bumblebee is a young mech, this is still a war and we must not get distracted along the way" Optimus said as he looked at the activated groundbridge "I will see you soon Ratchet" he said as he walked through the portal

The medic sighed as he monitored the screen and kept track of what was happening with Arcee and Bulkhead while checking on Optimus once a while. With Optimus, he was currently in his vehicle mode searching for Bee in Las Vegas city. Managing to avoid being carjacked and having nosey humans looking in his windows while he rested was not pleasant. After hours of searching he finally found bumblebee near the mountain area, transformers into bi-pede mode he frowned and walked over to the young scout who seemed to be occupied with what he was doing to notice Prime walking towards him.

::Hey Blades nice to see you again after eight meta-cycles and sorry for not calling, I've been busy trying to-:: Bumblebee said before drooping ::That is the worst conversation starter:: before he continued ::Blades! Nice to see you! It's been a while. How's it hanging" he said before groaning into his two servos "that's even worse::

Optimus starred quizzically as Bee talked to a rock and stood there for almost 4 groons until bumblebee turned around and made a noise of embarrassment as he saw his leader. Clearing his throat tubing he chuckled nervously and stared at the prime before him.

::How long have you been standing there?:: Bee asked as he rubbed the back of his helm in embarrassment

"Not long...I see you have, obtained feelings for one of out comrades back on the island" Optimus said as Bee became flustered

::NO! We are only friends and I haven't kept in touch like I promised and I...I wanted to practice what I wanted to say...that's it:: Bee explained but Optimus saw right through him

Optimus quirked his brow and found the entire thing amusing, he regained his composure and remembered as to why he went to find Bumblebee in the first place. He was going to say something until he received a call from ratchet but all he heard was static. Bumblebee groaned as he had to deal with the static once again for the past three cycles.

"I see I was correct on the lack of signal for any comm frequency to get through" Optimus said as Bee looked at him in confusion "We should head closer to the city and check in with Ratchet from there. It will be easier to send our location"

Bee nodded and transformed into vehicle mode as did Optimus and the two drove off into the direction of the city. When they were close enough Optimus pinged Ratchet and sent their coordinates to head back to base but Ratchet had other ideas as he informed them of the situation with Bulkhead and Arcee.

/I've already sent Smokescreen onto the scene and no doubt Wheeljack is already there providing aid/ Ratchet said once Optimus and Bee arrived at the coordinates that the groundbridge will appear

"We shall see them soon, Open the groundbridge" Optimus ordered as Ratchet complied and a green vortex appeared and the two bots entered the portal to arrive at their new destination.

When exiting the portal, Bee and Optimus were surprised as they saw their team fire upon the threat that none could quite make out due to the organic plants covering it's entire being. Bee automatically returned fire and joined in the fight as Optimus made his way to Ultra.

"I didn't expect to find this being still around this location when first appearing" Optimus said as he dodged the beings fist when it was brought down on the ground he once stood before returning to his friend's side

"Arcee and Bulkhead had found the creature and then they called for backup when realizing how...large it was" Smokescreen said as he gasped in alarm as he pushed Optimus out of the way of a lone blast "WATCH YOUR AIM!" he bellowed as Bumblebee shouted an apology at the two before returning to battle

Optimus couldn't help but laugh and Smokescreen stared at him in bewilderment as the prime laughed at the fact he could've been shot by one of his own. The prime quickly regained his composure but couldn't help but chuckle some more. The two then focused back onto the battle and when Optimus managed to get a good shot at the metal being, he found something oddly familiar about it. It was then the creature froze when seeing Optimus and then all they heard was static before hearing the being bellow with laughter.

"By the ALLSPARK!, Who knew I would've met more autobots here!"

"What is going on?" Arcee asked she looked at Wheeljack who shrugged

"Don't look at me. I stopped questioning a whole scrap of things a long time ago" Wheeljack said as Bulkhead sighed

"If it isn't Team Prime. It is good to see more bots again"

::Optimus:: Bumblebee began but Optimus couldn't help but smile

"It is nice to hear from you High Tide" Optimus greeted as the other bot removed the organic matter from its torso

The others couldn't help but stare as they realized it was armor they were fighting against the entire time. The being transformed causing team prime to be sucked into its transformation sequence and return to the surface. Optimus was the first to recover as the others groaned, he lifted himself off the deck floor and awaited for his old friend. When High Tide emerged he wasn't alone as his mini-con dog ran out to greet everyone.

Optimus smiled as he patted the dog on his head before it ran off to meet everyone else, Bumblebee was more happy to play with the mini-con than any of the others. High Tide chuckled as he said his apologies on the scare as he took a look at Team Prime.

"Let's talk over a nice glass of energon, We'll do formalities there" High Tide said everyone agreed as the sound of energon made there tanks rumble making High Tide frown "I see energon is hard to come by here"

"Nothing we can't manage old friend" Optimus reassured as High Tide didn't look convinced

When they were led below deck High Tide turned and pressed a few commands to order his ship to go underwater. The others relaxed as they were hidden from prying optics or eyes in human terms, the team were then led to the ship's lounge as High Tide prepared energon for them all.

"Where's Hatchet? Haven't seen him in eons" High Tide asked as he served everyone

"He is back at base monitoring things, I'm sure he'll want to hear from us soon" Optimus informed as High Tide smiled

"It's good to know the old bot is still functioning. I've been alone with servo so long I've begun to almost understand him" Tide laughed as his mini-con barked happily

Optimus smiled before he became concerned for his friend. "High Tide what has happened to you since Cybertron went dark?" he asked as the blue bot frowned

"After hearing about the massacre to all rescue bots over the radio, I returned to cybertron from a rescue back on Helix. I found everything destroyed and I laid low to prevent any cons from getting the chance to finish the job" Tide began as he sighed "they were so young"

The room was grim as Bumblebee struggled to keep his intake shut as Optimus cast him a glance when the rescue bots were mentioned. High Tide then looked up and noticed the yellow scout's discomfort but didn't call him out on it.

"Now enough with the grim tales, how have you all been?" High Tide asked as everyone looked at each other before becoming more relaxed they had been in a very long time.

The room was soon filled with laughter as they told stories of their adventures and what has so far happened on earth and High Tide's low profile back in space. Smokescreen and Bumblebee were occasionally petting the mini-con as he growled in content and occasionally would jump on the two to ask for more affection.

"Servo, down boy. They're not going anywhere" Tide chuckled as the dog only barked and continued to run around the room

Optimus looked at the mini-con in surprise as he turned to High Tide. "Servo? I haven't seen him since he was a cyber pup"

Tide chuckled as he gave servo an affectionate scratch behind his ears. "Me and Servo have been together since the whole...affair" Tide said not choosing to retell dark times

"So what brings you to earth? Rarely any bot would even come close to an organic planet" Arcee asked as High Tide starred at the femme

"I was minding my business when the monitor picked up a few spark signals, couldn't quite get the name of the place before my ship decided to hit rock bottom...literally" High Tide informed as he recalled the stressful memory

Optimus and Bumblebee tensed and hoped that High Tide meant their sparks but they both knew better than to hope for the best. Before anyone could say a word an explosion was heard and they looked at the culprit and found Wheeljack frozen in place as he held what was supposed to be a cup of energon.

"Uh...Wheeljack, how-" Smokescreen began but wheeljack cut him off

"Don't, like I said before I stopped questioning these things a long time ago" Wheeljack said as servo slowly took the cup from as everyone took at least one step back from the wrecker except for Bulkhead

"Jackie, I sometimes wonder how but I know I won't get a straight answer" Bulkhead sighed as the other wrecker smiled cheekily

Optimus smiled before he was being pinged from Ratchet who demanded their whereabouts as they hadn't called back to base for over six groons. Quickly reassuring the medibot about their location and safety did Ratchet relax somewhat. Until he heard High Tide over the comm link did he remain silent before demanding explanations. It was already dark when they returned to the surface for Ratchet to come and greet High Tide personally as Raphael managed the groundbridge back at base. When seeing the bridge open did they then see Ratchet walk out with a scowl on his faceplates as he crossed his arms.

"Do you have any idea how worried you all made this medibot!" Ratchet snapped as the younger bots flinched while the older bots frowned

"We're sorry Ratchet, we didn't see how time has passed so quickly" Optimus apologized as Ratchet sighed before turning to High Tide

"It's nice to see you again High Tide" Ratchet greeted with a rare smile that had Bumblebee smirking as Smokescreen and Arcee groaned

Wheeljack held back chuckles as Arcee and Smokescreen both handed bumblebee two shanix each from their little gamble. As Bulkhead gave them a glare as High Tide gave Ratchet a glass of energon as the two bot's walked back into the ship to get better acquainted, Smokescreen stared at the two bots in question before turning to Optimus.

"Was there any 'history' between those two?" Smokescreen asked as Ratchet spat out static at the innocent question he obviously heard

Optimus sighed as he facepalmed while Bumblebee couldn't help but laugh at the situation as Arcee decided not to add fuel to the fire. Bulkhead and Wheeljack stayed quiet knowing that a certain sword wielding spiritualist would not take kindly to an old flame of Ratchet's. Arcee decided to head back to back to base for some recharge as she had patrol in the morning. Smokescreen followed suit as did Bulkhead as their tired frames caught up with them. Only Optimus and Bumblebee remained on the ship's deck as the cold air hit their plating.

::We have to tell him:: Bumblebee said as Optimus frowned

"When the time is right. Now is not the time, they don't know he's here and the decepticons are surely monitoring the strange spark energy that has appeared here" Optimus informed as Bee didn't look convinced


	38. (Side Story) The Tide is High: Part 2

It was a new day in Jasper Nevada, as the bots all got up from their berths to start the morning with patrol and more likely another battle with the decepticons. Ratchet was at the console typing away as he monitored frequencies among the humans and cybertronian communications. Optimus was already out on patrol while Bumblebee was sulking in the main room with Ratchet as he sighed for the tenth time that morning.

"If you don't stop your sulking, I'll be wielding your intake shut" Ratchet plainly said as Bee stared at him before groaning

::I'm Bored, I would rather be out on patrol:: Bumblebee stated as Ratchet scoffed

"If you haven't wandered far from where we could contact you then you wouldn't be here with me" Ratchet chided as Bee scowled

With Bulkhead and Arcee they were currently following an energon lead until they heard the familiar sounds of drills as they cursed at their luck. They quietly made their way forward as they drew out their weapons as they carefully rounded the corner only to freeze to see a familiar sea bot. The bot in question didn't notice them until his mini-con dog started barking excitedly when he saw them. Arcee and Bulkhead quickly switched their weapons back into servos as their friend turned to look at them. Seeing them he laughed as he stopped the drill to greet them properly before servo can go run around them.

"Hello laddies, what can I help you with?" High Tide asked as the two bots stood frozen a couple of seconds before they came out of their stupor

"High Tide, I didn't think you'll be coming to shore" Arcee said as High Tide shrugged

"Came low on supplies and found an energon trail, decided to harvest some before heading back out to sea" High Tide explained as he pointed over his shoulder at the harvested energon

"Well, we will stick around in case any cons decide to show up" Arcee said as High Tide waved her off

"Could use the help but no cons would be comin' here" High Tide said as he loaded another energon crystal on the wagon "This tunnel leads out to sea and that's where I followed it, we're in so deep, that it scrambles our comm frequencies" he laughed as Bulkhead and Arcee tried out their comes only to hear static.

"Guess we should harvest the energon before we head back to base" Arcee said as she went to the tools meant for harvesting energon

"Couldn't have said it better myself, the waves will be coming in soon and this whole place will be flooded before the groon" High Tide informed making the young bots stare at him in surprise before quickly going to work

The work was strenuous and Bulkhead nearly squashed Arcee to the wall when Servo ran between his legs. High Tide didn't turn to look at the two bots but he did scowl when his equipment was damaged thanks to bulkhead or his helm nearly being blown off thanks to Arcee being too cautious. Luckily for him, they were almost done with harvesting the energon needed for himself and Team Prime. When Bulkhead and Arcee returned to base, dented and covered in dirt and grime, Ratchet merely stared while Bumblebee stared at the wagon of processed energon cubes.

"I see you ran into High Tide" Ratchet stated as Arcee and Bulkhead groaned

"He worked non-stop, no breaks, he just kept working" Bulkhead groaned tiredly as he sat down on the medical slab

"At least he didn't make you go inside every crevice in that tunnel" Arcee said with a scowl as she rubbed her backside

"That's High Tide for you, always working never giving a scrap about being on a team, prefers to work alone" Ratchet scoffed as he went back to the console

The room was awkwardly quiet as Bumblebee took that as his cue to store the energon cubes in the back room while Arcee and Bulkhead went to the wash racks. When Optimus returned he sensed the awkward atmosphere and wondered what he returned to as he walked toward Ratchet.

"I sense that you are angry" Optimus said, startling Ratchet but the medibot merely mumbled something incoherent and continued with his work

Optimus sighed and simply placed a hand on his shoulder to make Ratchet turn to look at him but what surprised the prime the most was the sad look on his face. "Just some old memories, I'll be fine" Ratchet reassured as Optimus nodded

"Go rest, I'll handle things from here" Optimus softly ordered as Ratchet slumped but complied either way

"Smokescreen will be here with the humans soon, don't let them make too much noise" Ratchet said as he went off to his room

"I promise old friend" Optimus said with a smile as he watched Ratchet leave for some much needed rest

Meanwhile with Smokescreen, he was currently waiting at the school for the humans and had to scare off a few humans that got to close them by just playing a recording of an angry old human that he got from one of the human movies he enjoys watching with Bumblebee and Miko. When he heard the bell ring he internally sighed in relief as he waited patiently for Jack, Miko, and Raphael to exit the school. Smokescreen didn't have to wait too long as he saw the three walking toward him and he automatically opened his doors for them to get in. Once they were inside he slowly left the school and headed back towards base.

"So how are things back at base?" Jack asked as Smokescreen sighed

"Usual stuff, patrol, fighting cons, nothing much" Smokescreen replied before remembering about High Tide "Oh and we met another Autobot yes-te-day?" Smokescreen tried to say as Miko laughed

"You mean 'yesterday'...and What Bot! Is He Cool!" Miko excitingly began

"Well one the human language is weird, two, he's okay I haven't known him long this is the first time I've heard of him" Smokescreen responded as he finally left the small town and onto open road

"Would we get to meet him?" Raph asked as Smokescreen thought about it

"It's up to him, many of our people don't take kindly to organics" Smokescreen informed as he recalled their sworn enemy for many millennia

The ride became quiet and the racer decided to play the radio for the humans to enjoy while they made their way towards base. When arriving they saw Optimus on the console monitoring for any decepticon activity, getting out of Smokescreen, the kids went up to their makeshift lounge to greet the prime.

"Hey optimus" Jack greeted as he placed his backpack on the couch as the Prime nodded at their arrival

"Greetings Jack, Miko, and Raphael. I trust that you all have...home-work?" Optimus asked as the term confused him

"Oh come on, we just got here" Miko whined as she sat on the couch

"And we have a math test on Friday and there's no way I'm failing it" Jack said as he took his textbooks out of his bag

"Can't we see what the bots are up to first?" Miko asked as Jack and Raphael stared blankly at her "What?"

"No offense to the bots but every time we check up on what they're doing, we end up in life and death situations" Raph said as he smiled sheepishly when he turned to Optimus "No offense Optimus"

"None taken Raphael, but Jack is correct Miko, you're education is more important than what our team does on a daily basis" Optimus said as Miko groaned

"Fine but studying is so boring" Miko said as she took her math textbook out her bag and began to study

Optimus nodded at the three before turning at the console and began to type away as he monitored frequencies and worked on decoding Project Iacon. Smokescreen was already heading out for patrol when he nearly ran into Arcee and had to resist covering his face from the smell coming off the femme.

"Uh...Arcee?" Smokescreen began but stopped when he recieved a glare from the femme

"Don't. I already know I smell like seaweed and other things that I would rather not mention" Arcee snapped as Smokescreen nodded

"Got it...Have you tried toe-may-toe juice?" Smokescreen offered as the femme glared and walked away from the scout "Was it something I said?"

The scout shrugged and transformed into his vehicle mode and went out for patrol while Bumblebee sulked as he had to stay in the base for another earth week. Optimus turned to look at him and saw how bored he was, the prime had to resist the urge to send him out on patrol with Smokescreen. He sighed and continued working, enjoying the silence until it was broken by Miko and Jack arguing on what answer was correct.

"No Way! It's 34!" Miko argued as Jack scoffed

"Not a chance! The answer is 45!" Jack argued back as the two began to yell at each other while Raph sighed

"Actually, you're both wrong. It's 22" Raphael stated as both teens turned to look at him

Soon the base was filled with the humans arguing and Ratchet hadn't bothered to check what the commotion was yet so he was probably in deep recharge. Bumblebee was watching the teens argue not knowing he was going to be dragged into it until he did the problem himself and got a different answer than the humans. Soon he was arguing why his answer was correct as theirs was wrong which immediately caused Optimus to send Bumblebee out for a drive to cool off while he called Fowler to aid with the kids. The prime sighed as the arguing continued even after Fowler arrived and the agent sighed as he made a phone call before describing the problem then receiving the answer from a friend of his.

"The answer is 6" Fowler said as the kids groaned

"But How!" They yelled out before hearing Bumblebee's cheers

Optimus had to hold back a laugh as his scout was cheering that he had the correct answer all along, which made him wonder if he ever left base or came back early from his drive. Hours have passed and everyone returned from their patrol to refuel and head to recharge for the night. The humans were already back at home while Optimus and Ratchet remained awake a while longer.

"I've heard the argument earlier today" Ratchet said suddenly as he chuckled at the surprise look Optimus had "Don't give me that look, I'm sure Bulkhead even heard it when he was taking a tomato bath as the humans say it"

"The humans are...eccentric" Optimus said as Ratchet scoffed but still held a smile

"Our race knows more than this planet can learn in one-hundred meta-cycles, It is not surprising that they'll argue over petty things" Ratchet said as he turned to the monitor and frowned "These frequencies...have they been tampered with?"

Optimus frowned and looked over the monitor and tensed seeing the frequency coming from a particular island. "I'm sure it is a glitch in the system"

"I don't know, if it is I'll have to reboot the entire system but we will risk losing the progress you made on Project Iacon" Ratchet informed as Optimus frowned

"We can't risk losing Project Iacon, not after what you and Wheeljack went through to obtain it" Optimus said as Ratchet sighed

"I'm heading to my quarters for the night, I shall see you in the morning Optimus" Ratchet said as he left the prime alone in the main room

Optimus turned back to the monitor and answered the call and was met with a familiar red fire truck. Meanwhile, at the bottom of the sea, High Tide was analyzing the frequency he heard before he crash landed on earth. Optics narrowing he typed in a few command codes but it did nothing to find the location to where the frequency came from.

"Scrap, eight deca-cycles and still can't crack where the frequency is coming from" High Tide groaned as servo whimpered at his companion's dismay "this frequency, it can't be coincidence"

Servo whined as he pawed at Tide's leg struts as the old bot continued typing on the monitor to track down the frequency. He absentmindedly scratched servo's helm as he continued his work not knowing his work was attracting some unwanted attention.

"Soundwave have you detected the unknown frequency" a deep raspy voice asked as the silent mech turned and with a negative shake of his helm

The other growled out in anger as he turned he glared at the monitor a few steps away from him before turning to leave for his quarters for some recharge. Soundwave turned back to the monitor and glanced at the strange frequency once more before turning his attention on decoding project Iacon. As Soundwave continued working, unknown to him the frequency all together disappeared from the system as it has never existed in the first place. From the bottom of the sea, High Tide ended his search and upgraded his security systems in the meantime when he noticed he picked up a few unknown frequencies.

"That could have been a disaster, eh servo?" High Tide chuckled as servo barked, he then motioned for his mini-con to follow him back to their quarters for much needed recharge

When morning arrived Team Prime were already out on patrol when they once again met up with High Tide. It didn't take long when they met some trouble at their coordinates as they barely escaped from the deceptions without any major injuries. Now here was High Tide in the autobot base as he stayed away from the humans as Optimus called them.

"You know, for one big bot you sure get nervous a lot" Miko said causing Jack to glare at her while High Tide took a step back

"I mean no offense...but organics are not common from where we are. And we would mostly shoot them since they ally themselves with Quintessons" High Tide informed while the kids quickly walked to their guardians as they nervously looked at High Tide

Ratchet glared at High Tide while the sea bot shrugged as he didn't understand why Ratchet was mad at him. Optimus sighed and Bumblebee looked at him and seeing the look his scout had made the prime come to a decision regarding a major secret.

"Uh...I think we promised to help clean out her garage" Miko said as she patted bulkhead on the leg as Jack caught on

"Yeah...yeah, we have a lot of stuff to get rid of and I'm sure you guys can handle yourselves" Jack said as Arcee transformed into her vehicle mode as the teen quickly got on and they sped off

Bulkhead followed her lead and Miko quickly went in with Raphael going with her as Bumblebee stayed behind in case anything happened. High Tide watched them drive off not understanding why they were leaving so soon but he didn't complain.

"Great now they're scared" Ratchet said as sent s withering glare at the sea bot

"Why would they be scared?" High Tide asked as he looked at the tunnel they left in "I didn't say anything to frighten them"

Deciding not to waste his energy getting mad at the clueless bot, Ratchet scoffed and turned back to the monitor. High Tide frowned but turned his attention to admiring the base, he wasn't surprised that they took shelter in the human's military but the thought of having to rely on the organics, nerve wracking. Optimus and Bumblebee shared a look and the scout decided to leave prime to do what needed to be done while he went out on patrol. Seeing his scout leave, Prime turned to look over at High Tide who seemed to be lost in thought. The sound of ratchet groaning in annoyance was heard as it caught the attention of the two other bots. Optimus went up to him and tensed seeing the same frequency from the island. High Tide didn't get the chance to see what happened as Ratchet typed in a few codes and the frequency was gone.

"There. That should fix while I figure out what type of virus the humans managed to put into the system this time" Ratchet said as he went to get his tool kit from the medbay

"Humans can transmit viruses into machines?" High Tide asked as Optimus looked over at him

"Not the type of viruses that affect us. Often times the humans would connect Raphael's computer to the mainframe and it causes...abnormalities in the system" Optimus clarified as the sea bot quickly relaxed

"These humans are strange" High Tide declared as he decided not to stay for much longer "I'll be off, Hey Hatchet, do you mind bridging me back to my ship?"

Ratchet scowled at the long term nickname but complied as he walked over to the system and type in the coordinates to High Tide's ship. Not seeing High Tide scan the system before his eyes widened in shock.

"This is as close as I can get you without alerting the cons that you're here" Ratchet said, snapping High Tide out of his stupor

"Right...I'll see you all the next solar cycle, probably" High Tide said as he walked through the ground bridge not sparing Optimus a glance

Ratchet questioned his sudden moody behavior but shrugged it off as he got to work fixing the console. Optimus noticed and had to suppress a sigh as his oldest friend found the frequency to the Griffin Rock base. He stayed and helped Ratchet with the repairs as everyone returned from their day out a couple of cycles later. It didn't take long for everyone to head into their quarters for recharge but two remained awake as they got ready to meet High Tide.

::He's not going to be happy:: Bumblebee said softly as he twirled his servos anxiously

"I understand your concern Bumblebee, but we can't hold the truth for much longer" Optimus said as he activated the groundbridge

::What do I tell Ratchet?:: Bee asked as he stationed himself at the console as Optimus walked toward the green portal

"That I went to meet High Tide" Optimus said curtly as he walked into the portal leaving a worried scout behind

As the portal closed behind him, Optimus looked for High Tide's ship and when spotting it a distance away he made his trek underwater as he gave High Tide a message beforehand of his arrival. When stopping in front of the large ship, the hatch opened and the prime walked through as the water dropped down his frame. He gave a surprised yelp as he was suddenly drenched with solvent as familiar barking were heard in the ship.

"That's enough Servo, I'm sure O.P. can give an explanation to those frequencies that we tracked from deep in space" High Tide said as he crossed his arms

Optimus sighed as he was led to the ship's command center and was met with charts and maps of High Tide's adventure through space. But what caught his optics was the four spark signatures on the monitor and the familiar frequency he used with the Griffin Rock base.

"You have questions" Optimus said as a High Tide didn't turn to look at him

"For many millennia I thought I was the last Rescue Bot but when I first tracked down these spark signatures in space I couldn't believe my optics" High Tide began as he looked over at a map where he searched for the rescue bots "but when I got there. It was just empty space"

"I doubt that stopped you from looking" Optimus said as High Tide chuckled bitterly

"I've spent so many deca-cycles looking, then I tracked down their frequency and here I am on earth" High Tide as he finally turned to look at Optimus "but why didn't you tell me" he snapped

The prime sighed as he walked forward and looked over at the maps and drawn out charts. "Keeping them safe was my top priority, they have never met violence in their entire frame" He explained "when I first encountered them, they had no idea of the war going on around them as they woke from stasis thanks to a message I've sent out many vorns ago"

High Tide remained quiet as he let Optimus tell him of the rescue bots on Griffin Rock, he even told them of their coordinates as the prime knew the older bot wouldn't hesitate to visit his fellow rescue bots. They talked for a while and seeing how late it got, High Tide offered for Optimus to stay the night as the currents were usually stronger when the moon was high. The prime agreed and he sent a message to Bumblebee to head to recharge and inform the team of his whereabouts in the morning. Getting a confirmed message back after a few klicks he chuckled knowing his younger scout probably went to recharge while waiting for him and his message most likely woke him up.

Optimus now currently resided in the guest quarters as he thought of what to tell the rescue bots back at Griffin Rock. It only took a matter of seconds for him to drift off into recharge as the sounds of the ocean's current lulled him to sleep.


End file.
